The Laken Riley Act is named after a young woman whose 2024 murder by an undocumented man in Georgia has become a rallying cry for Republicans. The bill would allow for the immediate detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants charged — but not necessarily convicted — with crimes as minor as shoplifting.
It also would allow states to sue the federal government if they feel immigration law isn’t being enforced, potentially giving partisan judges the ability to wield unprecedented power over immigration policy.
“Not only am I voting yes on the Laken Riley Act, I’m cosponsoring the bill,” Gallego said Wednesday on X. “Arizonans know better than most the real consequences of today’s border crisis. We must give law enforcement the means to take action to prevent tragedies like what occurred to Laken Riley.”
Gallego also voted for the bill last year, when he was a member of the U.S. House. This year, he’s joined in support by several prominent Democrats. Rep. Greg Stanton voted in favor of the bill, which has already passed the House, and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs tweeted in support of the bill. Sen. Mark Kelly supports bringing the bill to the floor.
Kelly spokesperson Jacob Peters said the senator wants an amendment process on the bill but did not respond to a question about what, exactly, Kelly would want to change. A spokesperson for Stanton did not respond to a request for comment on his support.
Of the Democrats in Arizona’s congressional contingent, only freshman Rep. Yassamin Ansari has come out against the Laken Riley Act, voting against it in the House. Ansari, who represents Gallego’s old district, called the bill a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
“The murder of Laken Riley was a horrific tragedy,” Ansari wrote on X. “But the anti-immigrant bill being pushed by House Republicans will do nothing to prevent this kind of violence or reform our broken immigration system. Under this legislation, someone charged — just charged, not found guilty — could be immediately deported.”
Phoenix recently was reminded of that difference. In August, Phoenix police officers beat, tased and arrested a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy, charging him with a bogus offense. The charges were dropped a few months later following a public outcry after video of the beating was revealed.
Had the victim, Tyron McAlpin, been undocumented, he could have been detained and deported on the basis of the arrest alone.
State Senator-elect Analise Ortiz (left) and Phoenix City Councilmember-elect Anna Hernandez (right) both criticized fellow Democrats who supported the Laken Riley Act, which they say will trample due process rights of undocumented people.
TJ L'Heureux
‘Beyond disappointed’
Ansari’s criticism was aimed at Republicans. But others soon trained their ire on Gallego and the Democrats supporting the bill, which the American Civil Liberties Union said violates bedrock constitutional principles and would lead to “a significant spike of racial profiling.”“I guess perpetuating anti-immigrant fodder and moving to the right instead of doing the right thing is the move in 2025,” Phoenix Councilmember-elect Anna Hernandez commented on X. “Nothing in the bill will actually give tools to law enforcement to prevent these tragedies. Also the bill’s constitutionality is in question.”
State Senator-elect Analise Ortiz said she was “beyond disappointed” to see Arizona’s Democrats support the bill, which see said “violates due process rights of the accused” and potentially “allows states to upend federal immigration policy.”
But Gallego in particular is coming in for the most criticism. Gallego was formerly one of the biggest critics of President-elect Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration efforts. In 2017, he wrote: “I am dedicated to holding the Trump administration accountable, and will continue to call out these policies for what they are: un-American.”
But Gallego ain’t what he was in 2017. After tacking to the center in his senate race against Republican Kari Lake, he’s shown no inclination to veer back to his progressive roots despite not standing for reelection for another six years. Even though Trump’s immigration aims are arguably more draconian this time around — with promises of mass deportations, including possibly of American citizens with undocumented parents — Gallego has shied away from criticizing Trump.
He may have had some details wrong. Gallego told Chad Pergram of Fox News that undocumented immigrants protected by the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program — that is, people who have lived in the U.S. since they were infants — would not be affected by the Laken Riley Act.
“The law is very clear that a DACA recipient is not going come under the umbrella of this,” Gallego said, according to Pergram. Other critics, such as Josh Breisblatt, say that’s not true. “This is just 100% incorrect,” Breisblatt, chief legal counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted in response to the quote.
Gallego’s spokesperson, Jacques Petit, did not respond to a question about what makes the law, which doesn’t mention DACA, “very clear” on that subject.
Republicans need only eight Democratic senators to support the bill to overcome a filibuster, so Kelly and Gallego’s votes are critical. Other Democratic senators have already signaled their support.
On X, Hobbs, who is facing a tough reelection bid in 2026, cheered Gallego’s efforts.
“Thank you Senator Gallego for representing Arizona well and cosponsoring this legislation,” Hobbs wrote. “The Laken Riley Act is an important step forward that will help keep our communities safe and secure our border.”
To Hernandez, who beat moderate Democrats in her city council election, Gallego, Hobbs and others are all falling for Republicans’ bad-faith tactics. “In my opinion, it’s the right using (Laken’s) death for theatrics,” Hernandez said in an interview. Just because Republicans largely ran the table in November doesn’t mean Democrats “have to cave into the right and not hold the line on important things.”
If they do, Hernandez asked, “What faith do we have that you’re going to fight in the bigger battles ahead?”
Instead, it looks as though Gallego and other statewide Democrats will employ an age-old maxim: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
