WASHINGTON – On January 7, The House passed H.R. 29, the Laken Riley Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain any undocumented migrant accused, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. As the legislation passed to the Senate, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights — an organization that mobilizes 2,300 rabbis and cantors as human rights leaders — sounded the alarm, urging senators to vote against this bill, which opens the door to mass deportation of migrants without doing anything to prevent violent crime.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T’ruah, said:
“Senators must vote no on S.5 (The Laken Riley Act), which cynically exploits the tragic murder of a young woman to encourage xenophobia against migrants and to deny them due process. Under this bill, someone arrested even for shoplifting could be unjustly detained by DHS without proof of them having committed any crime. We are deeply concerned by the potential for abuse inherent in this legislation, including the possibility that community members will be turned over to the federal government and could be deported if they are even accused of petty crimes.
“In addition to enabling mass detention, this bill gives state attorneys general legal standing to sue the federal government on a wide swath of federal immigration decisions. It renders federal policymaking on this issue ineffective and cumbersome, and gives xenophobic, anti-immigrant state officials another channel to exercise their agenda while evading federal checks and balances. Ironically, this bill would also make it harder for prosecutors to proceed with criminal charges related to the alleged crime at hand as the accused will be in detention and unable to attend their criminal case hearings. Nor would such a law, had it been in place, have protected Laken Riley from attack.
“Jewish law mandates a robust system of due process, in which those accused of a crime have the opportunity to appear before the court, witnesses with direct knowledge of the situation testify, and the judges determine an appropriate penalty which, in the case of monetary crimes, involves financial restitution — certainly not expulsion into a situation that will likely prove dangerous or even deadly. Furthermore, Jewish law provides for a person whose punishment has been completed to return to the community without facing further penalties.
“Those pushing this bill purport to want to protect women from violent crime. It is absolutely true that there is a national crisis regarding violence against women. More than 2,000 women are killed every year by men in the United States — and nearly 90% of these women are killed by a man they know. A majority of these women are killed by firearms. Real concern with the lives of American women would begin with common sense gun policies, as well as policies aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence. The Laken Riley Act would do nothing to protect women from murder or other violent crimes, but would have a disastrous and even deadly impact on migrants and their families, including women and children.
“President Trump, his advisors, and right-wing legislators have spent years spreading racist lies about immigrants, hoping that legislation like this would go unnoticed. T’ruah warned about the dangers of anti-immigrant rhetoric in our open letter from rabbis and cantors last year. If the bill passes the Senate, it will likely be just the beginning of his promised assault on immigrants, including mass deportations. Senators who claim to care about immigrants’ rights and about the human right to due process must vote no, rather than opening the door to a cruel path that violates human rights, standing American policies, and our basic Jewish values.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human RightsT’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.