Nevada Democratic U.S. Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee. (Titus and Horsford photos by Jeniffer Solis, Lee photo by Michael Lyle)
Nevada’s Democratic House delegation backed federal legislation that allows undocumented immigrants to be detained for nonviolent offenses like shoplifting, and at least one of Nevada Democratic senators says she’ll vote for the bill when it is heard in that chamber.
Immigration attorneys and coalitions warn the measure would “deny due process” for people accused of a crime without conviction.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee joined Republican colleagues on Tuesday to support H.R. 29, the Laken Riley Act. The legislation passed 264-159 with 48 Democrats joining Republicans.
The legislation would allow undocumented immigrants arrested or charged with crimes like shoplifting, theft and larceny to be detained even if there isn’t a conviction.
Michael Kagan, a professor at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, wrote in a Substack post that “the bill mandates detention based on a mere arrest — charges don’t even have to be filed (much less a conviction obtained),” adding that “the lowest ranking local police officer would gain the power to mandate the federal government to detain an immigrant.”
“This gives individual police officers near tyrannical power over immigrants in their community,” he said. “That’s a really bad idea.”
In a statement to Nevada Current, Titus called the bill “common sense anti-crime legislation” but called on Congressional Republicans to do more on immigration including a pathway to citizenship.
The legislation that passed the House Tuesday was named for Riley, a 22-year-old student who was murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela who is undocumented.
An early version of the legislation passed the House in 2024 but didn’t advance in the Democratic-contolled Senate. It is expected to be taken up as soon as Friday in the Senate, where Republicans now control 53 seats.
Several Senate Democrats, including Nevada’s Jacky Rosen, have already expressed support.
Rosen’s office said that she “believes if someone commits a crime, they should be held accountable” and that “she will vote in favor of this bill and would support amendments to improve the bill and address any concerns as it goes through the process.”
When asked if she would support the bill, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s office said she was “currently reviewing the legislation.”
Nevada’s House Democrats who voted in favor of the measure Tuesday declined to answer questions about whether the bill denies immigrants due process, if the measure would lead to immigrants merely accused of a crime to be deported, or whether it aids Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportation.
Lee said in a statement that Riley “may very well still be alive today had this bill been in law.”
“The bottom line is that if an undocumented immigrant breaks the law, they should be deported,” she said.
The New York Times reported in March 2024 that “according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the New York Police Department arrested Mr. Ibarra in August 2023 and then released him.”
The Times noted that New York law enforcement said Ibarra “had been driving a scooter without a license, and with a child who was not wearing a helmet” at the time of the arrest.
He was later arrested “in connection with a shoplifting case” two months later in Georgia but was released after his name was put through state and national databases and law enforcement couldn’t find any outstanding warrants, according to the Times.
Ibarra murdered Riley in February of 2024 and was convicted in November.
Horsford called the murder “a heartbreaking and senseless tragedy” in a statement to the Current.
“Removing predators from our communities is about keeping our loved ones safe, plain and simple,” he said. “My focus is on protecting Nevadans from ever experiencing what Ms. Riley’s family has endured.”
The legislation also allows state attorneys general to bring civil lawsuits against the federal government for violating a detention or removal proceeding “that harms such State or its residents.”
The Nevada Immigrant Coalition, a network of attorneys, civil rights groups and immigrant rights organizations, criticized the delegation for supporting a bill that “denies due process for immigrants.”
In a statement Tuesday night, the coalition said the bill erased “the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’”
Leo Murrieta, executive director with Make the Road Nevada, said the legislation “shows the actions taken are about politics, not justice” and will result in family separations.
Athar Haseebullah, the executive director for the ACLU of Nevada, said the bill doesn’t include any statute of limitations for the crimes outlined.
Immigration attorneys with the coalition also pointed out that the bill could exacerbate problems with existing immigration enforcement.
Hardeep Sull, the director of American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the legislation promotes an anti-immigrant agenda that will “strain our already overwhelmed immigration system.”
In late December, the ACLU of Nevada found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was actively considering proposals to expand its immigration detention capacity in Nevada.
The bill, Haseebullah said, would make mass detention and deportations more likely and “puts a target on longtime residents, including DREAMers, by mandating detention for any undocumented.”
“Under current law, mandatory detention already costs billions of taxpayer dollars every year to the enormous benefit of the private prison industrial complex including CoreCivic, which has had rampant reported instances of abuse in Nevada,” he said. “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.”