The National Employment Law Project (NELP) condemns the Senate’s action to end debate on S.5, the Laken Riley Act, paving the way for its passage into law. The bill cynically manipulates a tragedy to criminalize and demonize immigrant communities. NELP shares the serious concerns of our partners at the National Immigration Law Center and the civil rights community: that the bill would drastically expand mandatory immigration detention solely on the basis of arrest or charge – including for low-level offenses like petty theft and without due process. It would also give blanket standing to state attorneys general to challenge immigration policy in federal court. This costly and wasteful bill would unleash chaos on the immigration system.
If it becomes law, S.5 would provide yet another lever for unscrupulous employers to threaten, exploit, and retaliate against immigrant workers and drive down job quality for workers across the economy. Employers already use the threat of immigration enforcement to create “an atmosphere of coercion and exploitation in which undocumented workers are reluctant to report abusive employer practices.” Implementation of S.5 would supercharge this problem by mandating that ICE detain any undocumented immigrant arrested or charged with theft. An employer could, for example, make false charges of theft by a worker and if local officials arrest or charge that individual, ICE would be required to place them in immigration detention. Even the threat of such action would give employers tremendous leverage to intimidate their workers and subject them to abusive conditions like unsafe workplaces or wage theft.
This dynamic threatens immigrant workers, their families, and their communities. It also threatens the local and regional economies that depend on them. And it would hurt all workers, because exploitation and abuse of any group of workers drives down opportunities and standards for everyone. NELP will continue in solidarity with workers defending their rights as we build a good-jobs economy where immigrants and their work are valued and respected.
