The American Immigration Council does not endorse or oppose candidates for elected office. We aim to provide an analysis of the election’s impact on the U.S. immigration system.
Who runs the U.S. immigration system?
If the Senate passes the Laken Riley Act this week, the answer may not be Congress or the president. The bill, which has already been passed by the House of Representatives, would give state attorneys general like Texas’s Ken Paxton veto power over broad swathes of federal immigration policy.
Under a provision of the bill that has received little attention, federal courts in states such as Texas and Louisiana could hear lawsuits seeking a blanket ban on all visas from countries such as India and China. State authorities can also seek a court order forcing the government to deport specific individuals without approval from ICE officials.
Currently, immigration authorities are managed at the federal level. Giving states a veto over the thousands of decisions made every day by federal law enforcement officials and leaders could complicate immigration issues in every community and harm U.S. interests around the world. There is a risk of causing an international incident.
The bill is named for Laken Riley, a nursing student who was killed in February 2024 by Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who crossed the border in September 2022. It takes advantage of Ybarra’s highly atypical immigration history: crimes committed in multiple states while evading ICE arrest. ) Republicans introduced the Laken-Reilly Act shortly thereafter to paint all immigrants as criminals and the Biden administration as responsible.
Read more here on MSNBC…
Areas of responsibility: Immigration and Crime, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
