U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, on Wednesday slammed legislation supported by members of both parties that requires undocumented immigrants accused of even minor crimes to be detained, saying it promotes racial profiling and will spread fear in immigrant communities.
“It will separate families. It would lead again to continued discrimination,” said Tlaib, her voice rising as she argued against legislation named for Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia who was killed last year by a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally and who had been previously charged with shoplifting. “It’s shameful that my colleagues are giving in to racist fearmongering at the first opportunity to pass legislation to scapegoat our immigrant neighbors and fuel hate in our communities.”
The legislation, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain anyone arrested for or charged with burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting, as well as for any crimes causing death or serious bodily injury, or assaulting law enforcement personnel even if they have not been convicted, passed the House Wednesday on a bipartisan vote of 263-156, with 46 Democrats joining Republicans in supporting the bill.
Among Michigan’s congressional delegation, all seven Republican members supported the bill as did two Democratic members, U.S. Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City and Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids. Tlaib and U.S. Rep. Haley Steven, D-Birmingham, opposed the bill; Democratic U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor and Shri Thanedar of Detroit did not vote.
The legislation now goes to President Donald Trump, who made illegal immigration and concerns about immigrant crime a focus of his campaign last year, for his signature. The U.S. Senate passed the legislation last week with a bipartisan majority as well, with Michigan’s Democratic senators − Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin − supporting it.
Critics of the bill, including Tlaib − who is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and has long defended immigrant rights − argue that the legislation scapegoats immigrants and denies them due process of the law by detaining and potentially deporting them without their first being convicted of any crimes. The legislation also provides states the authority to sue the federal government to take certain actions to curtail immigration or release noncitizens from custody, though those parts of the legislation could come under constitutional scrutiny.
While Trump claimed throughout the campaign that crime was up and that immigrants were to blame, data has shown that violent crime has declined, and studies have indicated immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.
Attitudes toward immigration have changed, however, in recent years as the number of people entering the country without documentation across the southern border surged. In his first days in office this week, Trump has signed executive orders declaring an emergency at the border and has plans to begin mass deportations and limit entry into the country, as well as reportedly sending more military units to the border.
Republicans cheered the bill’s passage, with U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, noting on social media platform X it would be the first major bill Trump signed in his second term. “@HouseGOP continues to advance solutions to protect our communities from heinous crimes committed by illegal immigrants,” he wrote.
“@HouseGOP is making America safer,” U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Township, posted on X.
Tlaib called passage of the bill “shameful,” in her speech on the House floor Wednesday.
“You’re making this up so you can literally allow people to be profiled and discriminated against. Blame them for the cost of eggs? Is that what we’re doing here? …People can’t afford housing, you think it’s because of our immigrant neighbors?” she said. “Enough is enough.”
“I know what’s going to happen,” she continued. “It won’t just be undocumented, it will be people like my mother who will get stopped and profiled. (Does) She have to carry her U.S. passport around? Are we asking people now to have documentation?”
Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
