Editorial Credit: David Peinado Romero / shutterstock.com
Washington, DC — Today, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 29, “The Laken Riley Act.” America’s Voice urges a “no” vote:
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“This bill would empower state anti-immigrant zealots, like Ken Paxton and Kris Kobach, to overturn longstanding precedent by allowing state attorneys general to take the reins of federal immigration policy and throw our out-of-date immigration system into more chaos. This legislation is not about making the American people safer; it’s about further demonizing immigrants for political purposes.
Further, the bill tramples on important due process principles – greenlighting detention and deportation for those accused, rather than convicted of low-level crimes. The Laken Riley Act includes a host of unrelated, sweeping, and harmful measures while entrusting federal immigration policy to the most rabid anti-immigrant GOP state attorneys general.
It’s no surprise Republicans are continuing to exploit a horrific act of violence and portray immigrants as dangerous threats to America, despite the reality that immigrants have a lower crime rate than the native-born. And it also should be no surprise to any close observers of right-wing politics that the bill being pushed this week doesn’t seek to improve public safety or even focus on public safety threats.”
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Related: NILC Opposes the Laken Riley Act
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As policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council noted in a social media thread, “The Laken Riley Act would allow Ken Paxton to sue to force the U.S. to block all visas from China. I am not making this up; that’s an authority it would grant any state AG … For those looking for more context, the law authorizes state AGs to, among other things, go to court to enforce a Cold War-era law which allows the federal government to impose visa sanctions on countries which don’t accept the deportation of their nationals. China is one of those countries … The “among other things” here is that the Laken Riley Act also authorizes state attorney general to sue to overturn any decision to release (on bond or otherwise) any noncitizen arrested by ICE or CBP, regardless of the reason, as well as sue to overturn any decision to grant humanitarian parole.”