Proponents of the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump in his second term, claim that it ensures “no more innocent lives” will be lost to a broken immigration system.
The law significantly expands the scope of offenses that will land an undocumented immigrant in federal custody, including petty crimes like shoplifting, theft, and larceny. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now required to indefinitely detain any undocumented person arrested or charged with such an offense, even if they are never convicted.
Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who wrote the bill after the murder of 22-year-old Athens nursing student Laken Riley, argues this will make American communities safer. But immigration advocates say that it’s this wide net, coupled with the law’s disproportionate focus on low-level offenses, that could put more people in danger.
President Donald Trump speaks to Allyson Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, after he signed the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 29, 2025.
How will the Laken Riley Act be enforced?
In October 2023, José Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan immigrant who would later be convicted of killing Riley, was arrested for shoplifting from a Walmart in Georgia.
Supporters of the bill argued that local police failed to inform ICE about his undocumented status, ultimately leading to Riley’s death on Feb. 22, 2024. Local officers, however, were not required to inform ICE about his arrest because it was for a low-level offense.
That wouldn’t necessarily change under the Laken Riley Act, says Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council.
“This law is not asking state or local police to do anything differently,” Gupta notes. “This is a law that specifically tells ICE to prioritize making immigration arrests against the set of undocumented people who have arrests, charges, or convictions for low-level theft offenses.”
Even with the Laken Riley Act in place, the Georgia police officers who arrested Ibarra for shoplifting would not have been required to report him to ICE.
The onus of immigration enforcement operations still falls to federal authorities. Now, when ICE makes large-scale arrests, agents are required to place those people in mandatory detention. They have no option for a bond hearing under immigration law.
Another part of the problem could be ICE finding the capacity to hold that many people.
Because of limited space, the agency might be required to release immigrants already in its custody to make space for the people swept up under the Laken Riley Act.
ICE warned Congress that the Laken Riley Act could undermine public safety in December 2024, saying that if it passed, the agency anticipated that “tens of thousands of noncitizens would need to be released by the end of the fiscal year, resulting in the potential release of public safety threats.”
Where will the funding come from?
Funding for increased detention is not included in the Laken Riley Act. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that to enforce the law, ICE would need an additional 110,000 detention beds, 10,000 more enforcement and removal operations personnel, and 7,000 new government attorneys to handle immigration proceedings.
That could cost as much as $26.9 billion for the first year alone. Where would all that money come from?The source of the funding is still being debated in Congress, but some advocates suspect those dollars will be diverted from other federal programs. “Based on statements congressional Republicans have made and the requests right now, we know that they’re looking to make cuts from health care spending and programs that help low-income families,” Gupta says. “We presume those cuts will free up the dollars they’ve asked to fund immigration enforcement.”
Much of that funding could go into the pocket of CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the United States. CoreCivic owns and operates detention centers across the country, including four in Georgia, and receives roughly half of its revenue through ICE contracts.
In a Feb. 11 call with investors, CEO Damon Hininger said CoreCivic was expecting “perhaps the most significant growth in our company’s history” due to the Laken Riley Act.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Laken Riley Act expands ICE responsibilities to detain undocumented people
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