48 House Democrats Joined Republicans to Back an Immigration Crackdown

Support among House Democrats for the Laken Riley Act grew from last year, just before Donald Trump regains power.

https://www.notus.org/democrats-laken-riley-immigration-bill


Rep. Tom Suozzi was among the Democrats who voted in favor of the immigration bill. Erin Hooley/AP

The first vote of the new Congress was on a bill to crack down on unauthorized immigrants. And more than a fifth of Democrats joined Republicans to support it.The Laken Riley Act passed the House on Tuesday in a 264-159 vote, with 48 Democratic supporters. As the first vote of the session, it sent a message about what Republicans want to do with unified control of Congress — and whether Democrats will unify against Donald Trump’s agenda or go along with it. The bill, named after a Georgia college student who was killed by an undocumented immigrant last year, passed in the House last session but garnered 11 more Democratic votes this time around.

Seven Democrats who previously opposed or didn’t vote for the bill voted for it this time, including Reps. Ritchie Torres and Jared Moskowitz. “The people in America are concerned about the border, and we have to work together to address the problems at the border, especially when it comes to criminals,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, who supported the bill. “I think certainly there were flaws in the bill, and I think it was possibly a messaging bill,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam said. “But I generally supported the bill. I thought it had more good than bad.”

The bill would require the detention of unauthorized immigrants charged with theft or burglary even if they had not been convicted and would otherwise be released. It also allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they determine their state has been harmed by a failure to enforce national immigration policies. The man who killed Riley had previously been arrested for shoplifting and then released. Riley’s murder became a flash point in the immigration debate and was frequently mentioned by Trump during his campaign.

Democrats who opposed the bill said they were concerned about due process, noting it could lead to the detention of people later found innocent. “It’s a complete violation of due process. What it says is, if a 12-year-old is out with friends and he’s a DACA [recipient] and he gets arrested, but charges are dropped, he’s up for deportation,” Rep. Delia Ramirez said. “What happened to [Riley] was an absolute deplorable act and tragedy, but this bill is not going to fix it.” “We often see that people use the smoke screen of immigration policy to justify mass rollbacks on civil rights for all Americans,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “What we are seeing in terms of the gutting of due process in this bill, I do not believe is just reserved only for immigrants, and so often the rhetoric and the conversation around immigrants is just used to trick Americans into sacrificing their own civil rights.”

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https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/20256



Boyle (PA) Democratic Pennsylvania Yea
Budzinski Democratic Illinois Yea
Bynum Democratic Oregon Yea
Costa Democratic California Yea
Courtney Democratic Connecticut Yea
Craig Democratic Minnesota Yea
Cuellar Democratic Texas Yea
Davids (KS) Democratic Kansas Yea
Davis (NC) Democratic North Carolina Yea
Deluzio Democratic Pennsylvania Yea
Figures Democratic Alabama Yea
Gillen Democratic New York Yea
Golden (ME) Democratic Maine Yea
Gonzalez, V. Democratic Texas Yea
Goodlander Democratic New Hampshire Yea
Gray Democratic California Yea
Harder (CA) Democratic California Yea
Hayes Democratic Connecticut Yea
Horsford Democratic Nevada Yea
Hoyle (OR) Democratic Oregon Yea
Kaptur Democratic Ohio Yea
Landsman Democratic Ohio Yea
Lee (NV) Democratic Nevada Yea
Levin Democratic California Yea
Lynch Democratic Massachusetts Yea
Mannion Democratic New York Yea
McBath Democratic Georgia Yea
McClain Delaney Democratic Maryland Yea
McDonald Rivet Democratic Michigan Yea
Min Democratic California Yea
Morelle Democratic New York Yea
Moskowitz Democratic Florida Yea
Mrvan Democratic Indiana Yea
Pappas Democratic New Hampshire Yea
Perez Democratic Washington Yea
Riley (NY) Democratic New York Yea
Scholten Democratic Michigan Yea
Schrier Democratic Washington Yea
Sewell Democratic Alabama Yea
Sorensen Democratic Illinois Yea
Stanton Democratic Arizona Yea
Subramanyam Democratic Virginia Yea
Suozzi Democratic New York Yea
Sykes Democratic Ohio Yea
Titus Democratic Nevada Yea
Torres (NY) Democratic New York Yea
Tran Democratic California Yea
Whitesides Democratic California Yea