President Donald Trump has officially signed the Laken Riley Act into law. Under it, Homeland Security is required to detain and deport any undocumented immigrant arrested for low-level crimes like shoplifting, along with violent crimes like assault on a federal officer.
It passed Congress with bipartisan support — including from Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, who co-sponsored the Senate version. Rights groups have repeatedly warned it erodes due process for immigrants and has no carve-outs for minors.
Leecia Welch is the deputy litigation director of the legal aid group Children’s Rights and co–counsel in ongoing Flores Settlement negotiations. The settlement governs the conditions in which immigrant children are allowed to be held in federal custody, including facilities run by Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“Essentially, in the name of public safety, the Laken Riley Act, subjects children to indefinite, no bond, detention in ICE facilities, for offenses that are as trivial as taking candy from the corner store,” she said.
Welch says it’s also unclear how and where people would be detained — including children. She says the Flores Settlement can govern conditions for centers that house children, but may not be able to stave off indefinitely detention.
“The vast majority of the children that could get ensnared due to the Laken Riley Act’s requirements, would not be saved from indefinite detention by the Flores Settlement,” she said.
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A lawsuit filed by aid groups argues the Trump administration’s freezing of federal funds for refugees is illegal.
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State lawmakers are proposing two diametrically opposed requirements on what state and local officials should be doing about illegal immigration.
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As the new Trump administration has ramped up the president’s promised mass deportations, protesters have taken to the streets here and across the country to voice their opposition.
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Nogales, Sonora, mayor Juan Francisco Gim Nogales says the Mexican National Guard is arriving in the city as part of the agreement made by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for the Trump Administration to delay 25% tariffs on Mexican imports.
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A state Senate's Military Affairs and Border Security Committee approved a bill on Monday to rent the Marana prison complex to the federal government to house people held for immigration violations.