U.S. senators in Washington are debating the Laken Riley Act this week. The legislation passed with bipartisan support in the U.S. House and would require Homeland Security to detain immigrants arrested on low-level charges like shoplifting.
It's named after a nursing student who was killed last year by a Venezuelan immigrant who officials said was in the U.S. illegally.
“My heart goes out for the family of Laken Riley, and I just think it’s just a tragedy what happened to her. And at the same time, I think it’s very dangerous to politicize this,” said Phoenix DACA recipient Reyna Montoya, the CEO of the immigrant advocacy group Aliento.
The bill makes no carve-outs for minors or other immigrant groups — like DACA recipients or those of Temporary Protected Status — and it's also not yet clear how it would be funded.
Still, it's already gained traction among Democrats, including Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), who co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.
Montoya says she worries the bill could eliminate due process and clear a path for deportation for longtime U.S. residents like DACA recipients and other young immigrants.
“Even if they are seen as innocent and it’s declared, ‘hey, you actually didn’t commit any crime, there’s no evidence of that,’ they’re being held in detention,” she said. “Could that then mean the first step of their deportation?"
A host of studies in the last decade have shown undocumented immigrants consistently commit fewer crimes than U.S. natives.
Migrant Insider reports senators are considering several amendments, including one that would provide protection to Dreamers and minors.
Montoya says she’s hopeful to see the possibility of change, but she’s holding off judgment until she knows more details.
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Arizona has for a long time been one of the leading states for refugee resettlement, but now with the numbers cut so low, refugees in our state and the resettlement agencies that are built up to help them adjust are feeling the impact. -
The standoff began Oct. 5, when Border Patrol agents swarmed a protest camp situated in and around a cottonwood tree slated for removal to make way for two steel border walls — the last of a border-hugging grove on the U.S. side that was estimated to be as much as 250 years old. -
His comments come after the Arizona Sheriff’s Association accused his office of refusing requests for assistance from Border Patrol. -
The Arizona Sheriff’s Association issued an open letter calling out the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office over its response to the public safety concerns surrounding the border wall construction in that area. -
Thousands of refugees in the U.S. lost health coverage on Oct. 1 as new Medicaid eligibility rules took effect. In Arizona, unlike in most states, even children and pregnant women are being dropped.
