| Democrats’ post-election reckoning on the issue of illegal immigration is quickly coming to a head with the Laken Riley Act. Forty-eight Democrats helped pass it out of the House a week ago, and a majority of Senate Democrats voted Thursday to overcome a filibuster. But some advocacy groups — and fellow Democratic lawmakers — are increasingly urging caution or opposition, worried that the party is glossing over the details as it rushes to resolve a political vulnerability. Expect more of this spilling out into the open after senators voted Monday to begin debate on the bill this week, as well as on possible amendments. “Big picture, we see this as a knee-jerk reaction by Democrats who are trying to overcorrect,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice, told us Monday afternoon. “Even on the political question, this is not going to help Democrats in the long run. And they need to learn this lesson because there are going to be other bills coming.” In its current form, the legislation would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants who are accused of, arrested or charged in cases of theft and related crimes. It’s a response to the murder last year of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant who had been previously arrested for shoplifting. It’s a challenging political, legal and moral puzzle for Democrats. After their losses in the November election, they are looking to show they are taking concerns about illegal immigration seriously, but opponents of the proposal argue it is bad policy, bad politics — or both. Cárdenas said it will not stop Republicans from painting Democrats as weak on the border — “The ads are still going to come” — and could embolden the GOP to continue pushing the envelope on immigration policy. Voters of Tomorrow, a progressive youth outreach group, said in a statement Monday that Democrats “underperformed with young voters in 2024, and by legitimizing Republican’s xenophobic fearmongering, they are only setting themselves up to fail for years to come.” A number of Senate Democrats who voted to proceed to the bill — including Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) — have suggested they did so because they wanted a chance to amend the legislation, not necessarily because they support it in its current form. They are worried about the threshold for detention — a person being charged versus convicted — and provisions that give power to state attorneys general to sue the federal government over immigration policy disagreements. “Americans deserve for us to debate the issue seriously, including by considering amendments from the Democratic side,” Schumer said on the floor. The bill cleared another procedural hurdle Monday night as the Senate voted 82-10 to officially start debating the proposal. As he walked out of a meeting with other Democrats on Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) told us they had discussed a number of possible amendments and he would like to see many make it into the bill — but he and others coming out of the meeting declined to say which specific amendments they want most ahead of what might become a bitter negotiation. Emboldened by their November victories, Republicans don’t appear to be in a particularly accommodating mood. Multiple members of leadership vowed Friday not to let Democrats “weaken” the bill, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) sent his own warning shot in a Monday floor speech. “It would be incredibly disappointing if Democrats voted to move to the bill simply to attempt to load it down with poison pills or unrelated measures,” Thune said. “This is not — I emphasize not — a comprehensive immigration reform bill. It is an attempt to right one wrong.” Republicans have made the argument that Donald Trump’s victory — as well as wins in Congress — indicate the American electorate wants to see a massive immigration overhaul that would send more people back to their countries of origin. Immigration was considered among the most salient issues to most voters in this last election, according to exit polls. And Trump has rallied his base around the false assertion that undocumented immigrants have been major contributors to skyrocketing levels of crime. Centrist Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who voted for the House version of the bill, compared the presidential election to a report card — one that shows an area where Democrats need to gain ground. Landsman argued the results are an indication that voters have felt or witnessed how their communities have struggled to keep up with the flow of people across the border, and Democrats must respond to that. “It’s not political — it shouldn’t be — to take those election results into account as you move forward,” Landsman told us, referring to fellow Democrats. “These election results are voters telling their elected officials what they want. It’s important for elected officials to listen.” | 
Meryl Kornfield and 
