Laken Riley Act gets mixed reactions from local officials

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The House of Representatives recently passed the Laken Riley Act that would target undocumented migrants for deportation if they are charged with nonviolent crimes.

The Laken Riley Act is named after a 22-year-old Georgia woman who was killed by an undocumented migrant who had been previously arrested for shoplifting.

Immigration attorneys like Karla Olivarez believe this bill will only cause more problems.

“I don’t think that this law is going to help if that is what they are going for as it is only going to cause confusion within the immigration laws," Olivarez said. "Keeping people mandatorily detained is going to increase the number of individuals who are incarcerated and it is going to backlog an already backlogged system. For those who are detained, their cases are going to be prolonged for longer periods of time.”

One of the main supporters of the Laken Riley Act was Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz who called it an important first step to securing the border.

In a statement, she said, “Illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the United States should immediately be detained and turned over to DHS. Such action would have saved the life of Laken Riley.”

The bill passed with the support of 48 Democrats voting in favor including Congressman Vicente Gonzalez. The congressman says people should not be too concerned since the current law deports any undocumented person who is caught or who commits a crime.

“Once they're arrested, they're deported," Gonzalez said. "They don't have to be found guilty, but they do have to be undocumented, obviously, right? If they're here undocumented, they could be deported, even if they don't commit a crime and they don't get arrested, if they get found that they're undocumented, if they could be driving up north and they get pulled over at the checkpoint and they happen to be undocumented, they're going to get detained and deported.”

The bill is now in the Senate's hands. Olivarez hopes senators vote against it, as she believes false accusations against migrants may also increase.

“It's going to lead to increased detentions for individuals who turn out that they actually did not commit an offense or that the charges are dropped down the line," Olivarez said.

However, U.S. Senator John Cornyn says he supports the measure fully.

“I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who are illegally present in the United States, who are concerned about getting the whole panoply of due process that American citizens would get," Cornyn said. "They're not entitled to that legally.”