Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington claimed Sunday evening that the Laken Riley Act would deprive illegal immigrants of “due process” if it was passed, even though they already broke the law by crossing the border.
The Senate voted to proceed with debate on the legislation named after murdered nursing student Laken Riley, which passed the House by a 264-159 vote Jan. 7, Thursday. Jayapal told MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart that the legislation expansion of crimes that would mandate detention turned it into a “highway of mass deportation.”
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“Look, I think the first thing to know is that if an undocumented immigrant commits a horrendous act of murder, like what happened to Laken Riley, that person is immediately mandatorily detained and deported if they’re convicted of that,” Jayapal said. “Now, what this bill does, as you said, is that it expands that to shoplifting and theft, and it says that there is no due process.”
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was killed while jogging in February by Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Ibarra, who had a lengthy criminal record prior to Riley’s murder, was sentenced to life without parole in November after a judge found him guilty.
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“So, let me give you an example,” Jayapal continued. “A shopkeeper doesn’t like the way somebody looks when they walk into the store. They accuse that person of shoplifting. That person is immediately arrested by the police and immediately turned over and mandatorily detained by within the criminal justice system, that person has not had a trial. There is no evidence that that person actually committed the crime that they’re accused of, and yet they are mandatorily detained.”
Nine Senate Democrats and one independent voted against the motion to proceed Thursday, while 48 Democrats backed the bill in the House, including six who had previously opposed the legislation.
President-elect Donald Trump highlighted a series of crimes involving illegal immigrants, including the murders of Riley, Rachel Morin, and Jocelyn Nungaray and the struggles experienced by the city of Springfield, Ohio after an influx of over 20,000 Haitian migrants as he campaigned against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“So the way I like to think about this is that it is essentially a highway to mass deportation, and you can have any number of people picked up and put into the criminal justice system simply for being accused, with no conviction, no admission of guilt,” Jayapal told Capehart. “Right now, if you are picked up on shoplifting or theft, and you are actually convicted of that, you are mandatorily detained. If you are picked up and you admit to the crime, you are mandatorily detained.”
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“This says you can just be accused,” Jayapal continued. “And so it is really a massive overstretch, it is a real problem, and it is the way that Republicans are trying to expand the ways that you can put an undocumented immigrant into the criminal justice system without even a conviction.”
Trump promised to carry out a massive deportation effort targeting illegal immigrants during the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden administration officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, claimed that the border is secure on multiple occasions, despite the fact that the Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Illegally entering the country carries potential criminal penalties under federal law.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.