Gallego goes all in on GOP's Laken Riley bill

Arizona’s newly minted Democratic senator has announced he is backing the Laken Riley Act, a bill advocates say would eliminate due process for immigrants living in the country illegally.

As his first major announcement since taking office Friday, Sen. Ruben Gallego co-sponsored the bill named after Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was slain by an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the border illegally.

“Arizonans know the real-life consequences of today’s border crisis,” Gallego said in a statement.

“We must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law, to prevent situations like what occurred to Laken Riley. I will continue to fight for the safety of Arizonans by pushing for comprehensive immigration reform and increased border security.”

Gallego voted for the bill in the previous Congress, as a member of the House seeking the Senate seat he ultimately won.

“We understand and appreciate that leaders like Sen. Gallego are committed to border security, safety, and sensible immigration policy. Unfortunately, this bill does nothing to address those issues and instead gives state governments unprecedented authority to use the courts to overturn small and large decisions made by the federal government on immigration and foreign policy,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council.

“This would be a seismic shift in the balance of power between the federal government and states and would exacerbate the inefficient mess of the U.S. immigration system.”

Republicans, who now control both chambers of Congress, are expected to supercharge immigration and border enforcement through funding and legislation such as the Laken Riley Act, which cleared the House on Tuesday with buy-in from 48 Democrats.

Under the bill, states would be allowed to sue the federal government over various aspects of immigration policy, including detention of foreign nationals and visa policy.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would also be mandated to hold in detention any inadmissible immigrant accused — not necessarily convicted — of larceny-related offenses.

Inadmissible immigrants include immigrants who crossed the border illegally, but also many foreign nationals who entered the United States without a visa but received either parole, are seeking asylum or benefits such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Riley’s convicted killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States illegally and had been arrested and released on various charges before attacking Riley in February 2024.

The Riley murder received significant coverage and was uplifted by Republicans as a cause célèbre in the broader immigration debate.

But immigration advocates say measures like those proposed in the bill will ultimately do more harm than good, both by making immigrants more vulnerable to abuse and by chipping away at the federal government’s supremacy on immigration policy.

“The main thing to know is that this bill would essentially undermine the executive branch's ability to make immigration policy, whether there's a Democrat or Republican in the White House,” Gupta said.

“Federal agencies like DHS, subagencies like [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] under either Democratic or Republican control, would face litigation from everything from designating visas for certain countries to releasing an individual person from detention. They would face that litigation from states governed by the opposing political party, and so what this does is it upsets the division of power between the federal government and the state. It's a recipe for creating chaos in the federal courts.”

Gupta added that more than 60 percent of the people in immigration detention are already subject to mandatory detention, a number which would almost certainly rise were the Laken Riley Act to become law.

“The Laken Riley Act creates a pipeline for mass detention, not a sensible solution for public safety. This is political gamesmanship at its worst, planting a trap for lawmakers by exploiting a tragedy. This bill weaponizes the justice system to incarcerate immigrants for minor infractions, empowers extremists to rewrite immigration policy, and tears apart families who have long called this country home,” Kerri Talbot, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub, said in a statement.

“Any legislator who supports this bill is complicit in perpetuating Trump’s plans for mass cruelty and eroding trust in our nation as a place of refuge and opportunity. HR 29 creates more machinery for mass detention and deportation that would devastate our communities and economy while enriching private prison corporations.”

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) fielded questions Tuesday about growing Democratic support for the bill, saying he voted against it because it makes DACA beneficiaries vulnerable to deportation.

Immigration advocates are especially concerned that Republicans will continue to push draconian enforcement bills under cover of isolated criminal incidents, forcing Democrats to take votes that could be spun as unsympathetic to individual victims of crime.

“You know that they're going to keep using this, then, to do all kinds of things. You can name a bill after a victim, and then throw in all these standing provisions and upend the whole system, or throw in a bunch of resources that are really expensive, or a lot of dollars to cover some really expensive enforcement mechanisms. And every time, are we going to capitulate because it's in the name of a victim, or because it's messaged that way? Where are the lines? That's going to be really important going forward, and if this is not it, then what is?” Gupta said.