Hirono, Padilla, Merkley fear ‘unintended consequences’ of newly passed Laken Riley Act

US Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) released statements after the Senate passage of S.5, the Laken Riley Act.

The three agreed: “Our country needs comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform. Rather than fixing our broken immigration system, this legislation will further complicate it,” they said.

The Laken Riley Act empowers states to challenge immigration decisions made by the federal government and requires US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain any undocumented individual who is charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to theft and other crimes. The bill also requires ICE to ask local law enforcement to detain undocumented individuals currently within their custody who have committed such crimes.

Last week, Sen. Hirono introduced five amendments that would have prohibited minors from being detained; stopped the separation of families with children under the age of 16; and prevented states from suing the federal government for immigration decisions.

She later filed three additional amendments that she says would have shielded victims of domestic violence or human trafficking from mandatory detention or deportation. None of Hirono’s amendments were considered for inclusion in the final version of the bill.

In a joint statement, the senators said:

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“We are horrified by the senseless killing of Laken Riley and perpetrators of violent crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“The Laken Riley Act will have unintended, far reaching consequences that have received little to no debate. Under the mandatory detention provisions in this bill, low-risk individuals, like an undocumented 10-year-old merely accused of stealing a pack of gum, must be detained by ICE. According to ICE’s own estimates, it will cost nearly $27 billion to implement this law in the first year alone. This legislation will also sow further chaos in our immigration system by enabling states to challenge federal immigration and foreign policy decisions.”