Arizona State Senate
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Press Release
PHOENIX – Earlier this week, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 29, also known as the Laken Riley Act. This passage comes after a year of fighting against the passage of discriminatory legislation from the Arizona State Legislature. Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan (LD18) and Senate Democratic Assistant Leader Flavio Bravo (LD26) released the following statements:
Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan stated, “It is extremely disheartening to see legislation that pushes the same decades-old narrative that immigrants who to come to the U.S. are inherently violent criminals pass the U.S Congress with bi-partisan support, especially after spending the last year fighting against similar discriminatory legislation passed by the Arizona Legislative Republicans.
Prop. 314, which passed the legislature as HCR2060, has opened the door for widespread racial discrimination by allowing local law enforcement to arrest anyone they suspected of crossing the border without authorization.
Legislation has consequences, ones both in implementation and in public discourse. The narratives pushed by elected officials impact the way people treat one another. We saw this when there was an uptick in attacks against Haitian immigrants during the 2024 presidential election after Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and other Republicans pushed false allegations against the community.
Last year, Congress has reached a bipartisan deal for a bill that would have included border resources as well as needed immigration reform. However, then-candidate Trump demanded that Congressional Republicans pull support to keep the campaign issue alive. Instead, Congressional Republicans opened the 119th Congress by forcing a vote on H.R. 29, which is a far cry from that bipartisan deal and accomplishes far less while placing communities at risk.
It’s time for the federal government to stop using immigrants as political pawns and focus on passing policies that create a more fair, humane, and efficient immigration system that doesn't criminalize people looking for a better life while also addressing public safety.”
Senate Democratic Assistant Leader Flavio Bravo added, “Immigrants, documented and undocumented, play an important part in our society and our economy, and detaining and deporting them will not solve any of our country's public safety issues. We can all agree that public safety should be a priority for all elected officials but there are ways to accomplish that without going after people of color and immigrant communities.
Unfortunately, the narrative being used against immigrants while discussing the Laken Riley Act have become all too common. We saw all these same talking points play out in Arizona with the passage of Prop. 314.
On top of being unconstitutional, Prop. 314 was a blatant attack on communities of color. The same can be said about H.R. 29. While legislative Democrats were unsuccessful in stopping HCR2060, we were successful in amending it to include protections for Dreamers. The same cannot be said about H.R. 29.
The Laken Riley Act does not have carve outs for Dreamers, despite claims to the contrary. It is our job as elected officials to protect the people that we represent, which makes it even more upsetting to see many in Congress now use Dreamers as a scapegoat for passing bad immigration policy.
Just like Prop. 314, H.R. 29 opens the door for widespread racial discrimination and mass detention. However, it also removes due process for noncitizens and provides state attorney generals with the power to sue the federal government over immigration policies they believe are harming their citizens. Creating mandatory, prolonged detention for noncitizens in the U.S. who have been merely accused of, but not charged with or convicted of, criminal offenses sets a dangerous precedent and will lead to a road we do not want to go down.”
###
Kommentare