Laken Riley Act an Early Trump Win, Democrat Surrender

Debra Saunders on Jan 24, 2025

WASHINGTON -- Democrats are afraid, very afraid. This week, 12 Senate Democrats and 46 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain unauthorized immigrants who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.

Expect President Donald Trump to sign the measure and declare victory.

For decades, Democrats were stalwart in their defense of state and local sanctuary policies that shield illegal immigrants who committed additional crimes in the United States from federal law enforcement. Sometimes it felt as if there was a sign at the Southwest border that said, "Criminals, welcome."

Trump promised a different approach, which he sees as key to his November victory. For four years under President Joe Biden, law-abiding Americans fumed when they watched illegal immigrants flout the law and even get taxpayer-funded benefits as a reward. The worst offenders had little fear of the consequences.

In February, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student, was beaten to death and asphyxiated by a Venezuelan migrant.

Jose Antonio Ibarra crossed the border illegally in 2022 and was released on temporary protected status. He then headed to New York City, a sanctuary city inside a sanctuary-friendly state.

In the Big Apple, according to the New York Post, Ibarra was arrested "for child endangerment after blitzing through the streets of Queens on a moped with his wife's five-year-old son holding on for dear life." He remained free and he got a free plane ticket so he could move to Atlanta, where he was cited for shoplifting. When he didn't show up in court, a warrant for his arrest was issued.

You have to figure that every time offenders like Ibarra see themselves skating after breaking the law, they are emboldened to commit more crimes.

Last year, Ibarra was sentenced to life for Riley's murder -- a killing that would not have occurred if Ibarra had been deported.

Riley's horrible end brought to mind the death of Kate Steinle, a San Franciscan who was shot and killed in 2015 as she was strolling along the waterfront. The shooter, illegal immigrant and convicted felon Jose Inez Garcia Zarate, had been slated for his sixth deportation but was released from a San Francisco jail in accord with the city's sanctuary law.

Garcia Zarate also behaved as if he had no fear of serious consequences if he kept breaking American laws.

With Trump in the Oval Office, that's about to change. Some Democrats are signing on as well.

"Whether it's sober reflection or perhaps the sobering results of the November election, a handful of Democrats in both the House and the Senate have now come over to support this law, and we welcome them," said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chairman of House subcommittee on immigration, according to NewsNation. "We wish them well in convincing the majority of their party that they need to change course."

The entire Nevada delegation, which consists of five Democrats and one Republican, voted for the bill. Were they voting out of fear of losing future elections in a pro-Trump state? Or principle? Time will tell.

The legislation includes provisions that normally would give some members of both parties pause -- the requirement of detention before individuals have been convicted and a provision that allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if a state or its residents are harmed by lack of enforcement. Also, there is no path to citizenship for so-called DREAMERS who were brought into the country while they were minors.

"They've done this to themselves," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies, told me. D.C. Democrats look to him "directionless" and "demoralized."

But at least they don't look clueless.

I close with this reaction from ACLU senior border policy counsel Sarah Mehta: "The federal government already has expansive authority to detain noncitizens pending deportation proceedings. Requiring mandatory detention of a person accused of theft as retaliation for leaving a partner, or a mother who stole formula and diapers for her newborn baby is nothing more than scapegoating."

Some advocates have no shame.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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