FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Laura Trask
Director of Development and Communications
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. (January 8, 2025) – Ayuda strongly opposes the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29), passed Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives, which represents a grave threat to civil liberties, due process, and our shared values of fairness and justice. This legislation, if enacted, would mandate the detention of individuals accused of nonviolent theft offenses—such as shoplifting—regardless of whether they pose any threat to public safety.
The Act’s approach is deeply misguided. By enforcing mass detention policies, it will siphon resources away from addressing legitimate public safety concerns and lead to the unnecessary detention of individuals, including parents and community members, who may have committed minor offenses out of desperation or in the distant past.
As civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, have pointed out, this legislation is not about public safety. The federal government already has broad authority to detain individuals in deportation proceedings when deemed necessary. This bill, however, would expand mandatory detention, likely causing a surge in racial profiling and unnecessary incarcerations, disproportionately targeting immigrant communities and longtime residents.
This legislation would also grant states the authority to sue the federal government over immigration enforcement decisions, creating a dangerous precedent and further eroding trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities. Such provisions undermine our constitutional principles and threaten to create a fractured and unjust enforcement landscape.
Ayuda urges the Senate to reject this harmful bill and calls on lawmakers to focus on real solutions to our immigration challenges—solutions rooted in humanity, equity, and justice. We will continue to stand with immigrant communities and fight against policies that foster fear and division rather than inclusion and safety.
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About Ayuda:
Ayuda provides direct legal, social, and language access services to low-income immigrants in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 immigrants throughout the region. Ayuda is the only nonprofit service provider in the area that provides a wide range of immigration and family law assistance, social services, and language access support for all immigrants – including women, men, and children – from anywhere in the world. Visit www.ayuda.com to learn more.