WASHINGTON — The new GOP Congress is getting closer to passing a law that would allow Kentucky’s attorney general to sue the Department of Homeland Security if it fails to enforce federal immigration statutes.

The Laken Riley Act — supported by every Republican member of the commonwealth’s congressional delegation — is intended to give states more power to hold the federal government accountable for border security lapses. It also requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold undocumented immigrants charged with serious crimes.

The Senate voted Thursday to advance the bill that was easily cleared in a bipartisan vote by the House on Tuesday.

Its passage comes from an emboldened Republican majority in Washington, delivering legislation for President-elect Donald Trump to sign as soon as he assumes office on Jan. 20.

Rep. Andy Barr, who was a co-sponsor of the House legislation, said Trump’s signature of the bill would restore “the rule of law in America” and hold the outgoing Biden administration accountable for its failures to mitigate the crisis that became both a humanitarian and political albatross for Democrats last year.

Attorney General Russell Coleman, who has been lobbying for the legislation for months, heralded the bill’s enforcement provision for state attorneys general as early as last March.

“As attorneys general, we are fighting to preserve the rule of law and keep our states safe when the federal government fails to act or, in the case of illegal immigration, actively makes it worse,” Coleman said at the time.

There are an estimated 46,000 unauthorized immigrants in Kentucky, according to the latest data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute, but the population is inherently difficult to track fully.

A spokesman for Coleman did not answer a question about how the attorney general might use the new law, once it attains final passage by the Senate and is signed into law by Trump, as expected.

Opponents say the bill violates constitutional principles by giving state attorney generals unfettered power to force ICE to detain and deport specific people who had been previously cleared by authorities.

“The Laken Riley Act would not authorize state AGs to detain migrants, but it would authorize them to go to federal court seeking to overturn federal decisions made by even low-level immigration officers to release specific migrants on bond or through another means,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“You could potentially see lawsuits by state attorneys general seeking to dictate US foreign policy by seeking a court order requiring the U.S. to impose visa bans on so-called recalcitrant countries like India or China.”

In Reichlin-Melnick’s interpretation, the law could give Coleman the power to go to court and override discretionary decisions by immigration officers on who to hold, let go and deport.

Other critics of the bill say the broad detention requirements included could subject some undocumented residents to immediate incarceration for accusation of more minor offenses such as theft, burglary or shoplifting.

“The Laken Riley bill is a chilling first step toward widespread family separation while dismantling critical protections for due process,” said María Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino.

Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student murdered on a Georgia college campus last February by Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life without parole.

Ibarra had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had prior arrests in New York for child endangerment and a motor vehicle violation.

Last month, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul asked Biden Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas for information on whether Ibarra received a “humanitarian-based” taxpayer-funded flight from New York City to Atlanta in 2023.

“How many other individuals with criminal histories have been transported to unsuspecting communities, and who is responsible for monitoring their whereabouts?” Paul asked in the December letter.

In July 2024, two undocumented immigrants were arrested in Kentucky on charges of sexual abuse. Both individuals had previously been deported and re-entered the United States illegally.

Kentucky has 27 law enforcement officers dedicated to enforcing illegal immigration, according to testimony by ICE official Jeremy Bacon before the state legislature in November.

“Every state became a border state over the last four years, with skyrocketing crime rates and illegal drugs flooding into our communities,” said Rep. Hal Rogers, who represents southeastern Kentucky.

“This bill is just the first step to making America safer.”

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