Nevada Democrats vote for GOP bill to crack down on illegal immigration

Nevada House Democrats voted this week to support a Republican-led bill that aims to crack down on illegal immigration — much to the chagrin of local immigration advocacy groups.

The Laken Riley Act would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants who are unlawfully in the country and have been arrested on suspicion of, charged with or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.

Named after the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant and whose death spurred a nationwide political outcry to curb illegal immigration, the 2024 version of the legislation denounces President Joe Biden’s administration for its “open-border policies” and says the administration should have arrested Riley’s murderer when he was charged with crimes before her murder.

The legislation first passed the House in March — with all of Nevada’s House members voting yes for it then, too — but failed in the Senate. The House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act in a 264-159 vote as its first bill of the new session on Tuesday.

Republican Mark Amodei and Democrats Steven Horsford, Susie Lee and Dina Titus continued their votes in favor of the bill. Horsford, Lee and Titus were among only 48 Democrats to support the bill.

“The bottom line is that if an undocumented immigrant breaks the law, they should be deported,” Lee said in a statement. “Laken Riley may very well still be alive today had this bill been in law.”

Titus called the bill “commonsense anti-crime legislation.”

“While most migrants are in the U.S. in search of opportunity and are not here to commit crimes, there are exceptions to the rule and these bad actors must be held accountable,” Titus said in a statement.

Horsford said Riley’s murder a “heartbreaking and senseless tragedy.

“Removing predators from our communities is about keeping our loved ones safe, plain and simple,” Horsford said in a statement. “My focus is on protecting Nevadans from ever experiencing what Ms. Riley’s family has endured.”

The bill is now before the Republican-controlled Senate, which voted Thursday to begin debate on the bill. Both Democratic Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen have expressed support for the bill, which is expected to have the final votes for passage next week.

“I voted to support the Laken Riley Act because Nevadans want solutions that keep our communities safe,” Cortez Masto said on X. “My priority is to deliver results for our families, and I’ll work with anyone to get it done.”

“Senator Rosen will always support legislation to keep Nevadans safe,” a spokesperson for Rosen said in a statement. “She believes if someone commits a crime, they should be held accountable.”

Local immigration advocacy groups, however, say the bill would betray the core value of due process by requiring arrest and detention of an undocumented person who is “merely arrested” for a theft-related crime.

“Under the law, everyone has the right to due process in this country,” said Leo Murrieta, executive director with Make the Road Nevada, in a statement. “This bill would separate families and deny them the right to defend themselves, violating the principle of innocent until proven guilty.”

Athar Haseebullah, executive director for the ACLU of Nevada, said the bill opens the door to mass detention and puts a target on longtime residents by mandating detention of undocumented individuals arrested for shoplifting regardless of the circumstance, “even if no prosecutorial charges are brought forward and even if an immigration judge were to find no threat to community safety or flight risks exist.”

“While we are disappointed in our Congressional delegation for voting for this horrible bill, we’d ask our federal delegation to put the needs of Nevadans before the desires of our bloated federal government and the private companies that benefit from human suffering,” Haseebullah said in a statement.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.