Despite warnings from civil rights groups and other Democrats, the Laken Riley Act, signed Wednesday by Donald Trump, pulled bipartisan support in the House and Senate.

Summary

Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, expanding mandatory detention for undocumented immigrants accused of theft-related crimes and allowing state attorneys general to sue over immigration enforcement.

Despite warnings from civil rights groups and some Democrats about racial profiling and due process violations, the bill received bipartisan support.

Critics like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Cory Booker argue that Democrats who backed it succumbed to conservative fear-mongering, potentially harming immigrants and undermining civil rights.

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
    28·
    22 hours ago

    Here’s a look at the dozen Democrats who voted for the bill, most of whom hail from swing states. Some were just elected to the Senate last fall, while others are set to face tough reelection races next year.

    Catherine Cortez Masto

    Cortez Masto represents Nevada, a swing state that Trump won by 3 points last fall — the first Republican presidential nominee to do so since George W. Bush in 2004. “Anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable,” Cortez-Masto said Monday on social media. “Nevadans want solutions that keep their families safe, and I will continue to work across the aisle to deliver for our state.”

    John Fetterman

    The Pennsylvania Democrat co-sponsored the measure, which was led by his friend, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. Fetterman, who didn’t vote Friday on the procedural motion, recently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, with the president later describing the Democratic senator to the Washington Examiner as a “commonsense person.” November’s presidential election saw Pennsylvania voters back Trump for the second time, giving him a 2-point win over Kamala Harris.

    Ruben Gallego

    The freshman senator from Arizona, another co-sponsor of the legislation, voted for a version of the bill last year when he was a Phoenix-area congressman. “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,” the Democrat said in a Jan. 8 statement. While Arizona narrowly backed Joe Biden in 2020, the state swung toward Trump last fall, backing him by more than 5 points.

    Maggie Hassan

    The New Hampshire Democrat sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and made a visit to the southern border in 2022, the last time she was up for reelection. “Making it easier to remove undocumented immigrants who commit crimes from our country is a basic first step that Congress can take, but we cannot stop here,” she said in a statement earlier this month. The Granite State narrowly backed Kamala Harris last year, though Trump significantly cut into the Democratic winning margin.

    Mark Kelly

    Arizona’s senior senator said he supported the measure “because federal authorities need to protect our communities from criminals.” Kelly is not up for reelection until 2028.

    Jon Ossoff

    Ossoff is among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection next year and represents the state where Riley was murdered. Like Arizona, Georgia also flipped in last fall’s presidential election, backing Trump by 2 points four years after voters there had given Biden a narrow win and elected Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a pair of run-off elections. Gary Peters

    The ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and former chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is also up for reelection next year in Michigan, a state Trump won in November. It was the second time Trump won the Wolverine State, which was seen as a key part of Democrats’ “blue wall” of must-win states.

    Jacky Rosen

    The Nevada Democrat narrowly won reelection last year while Trump was carrying the premier swing state out West.

    Jeanne Shaheen

    The new top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Shaheen up for a fourth term in 2026, although she hasn’t announced whether she plans to run again. Earlier this month, after a vote to advance the legislation, the New Hampshire Democrat said she’d “long called for Congress to do more to address our nation’s broken immigration system.”

    Elissa Slotkin

    The newly sworn-in senator from Michigan voted for the bill when it came up in the House last year. She said this month that the nation “must get past petty partisanship that continues to dominate the immigration debate.”

    Mark Warner

    The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is up for a fourth term next year. Virginia has voted blue in federal elections for the past two decades, but since Warner’s last election, the commonwealth backed Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor in 2021 and Trump in November cut into his losing presidential margin from four years earlier.

    Raphael Warnock

    The Georgia Democrat didn’t support a Friday procedural motion to move forward on the immigration measure, but he voted Monday to pass it. In a statement, Warnock said the bill wasn’t what he would have written, but added: “I hope today’s vote is a genuine step toward true bipartisan cooperation to secure and strengthen resources at our southern border, smooth our asylum processes, and find a dignified solution for the scores of law-abiding undocumented Georgians working on our farms and in our communities.”