Anti-immigrant state officials and federal judges would have new power to dictate immigration enforcement — including whether to detain individual migrants — under a GOP bill that has passed the House and is moving forward in the Senate with bipartisan support.
The Laken Riley Act aims to overturn Supreme Court precedent and give states such as Texas the ability to bring the types of immigration lawsuits against the federal government that have been rejected by the courts, including conservative judges, legal experts say.
But it would go further, also authorizing state attorneys general to sue to overturn the decisions to release individual immigrants — and even to obtain wide-reaching sanctions on a foreign country for refusing to accept a national eligible for removal.
With Democrats eager to show that they were pivoting on an issue that cost them in the 2024 election, the bill has passed the House and easily cleared its first procedural hurdle on the Senate floor, with just nine senators voting against that step Thursday. But giving states new authorities to sue is emerging as a flashpoint for