SUE for Immigration Enforcement Act of 2024

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by expressing my deepest condolences to Laken Riley's family. The pain of losing a child is something no parent should have to go through. The alleged perpetrator should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

By all accounts, Laken was a kind and gentle soul, beloved by everyone around her. May her memory be a blessing.

Unfortunately, instead of coming together to express our sorrow for Laken's tragic loss, the majority appears to be exploiting her death for yet another partisan political stunt.

Rather than approaching this tragic event in a thoughtful manner, Republicans appear to have just thrown together language from existing unrelated bills that target and scapegoat immigrants to score cheap political points in an election year, while doing nothing to address the situation at the border.

This approach is fundamentally unserious. As if to emphasize the point, the author of this legislation spent the weekend promoting anti- Semitic memes on Twitter.

At base, this bill is a rinse and repeat of the majority's unserious attempt to keep immigration in the news: pick a crime; paste it into a template bill with sweeping, unrealistic immigration consequences; and then require detention and deportation of certain immigrants merely accused of committing such a crime--no due process required--all so that you can demonize immigrants and sound tough without actually making this country safer.

The legislation before us today would subject to mandatory detention any undocumented immigrants merely arrested or charged with committing an act of theft, larceny, or shoplifting, along with those who are convicted or who admit to committing such acts.

Let's think about that. Someone who is arrested and who was never even charged with a crime is now going to be subject to mandatory immigration detention?

The case of Laken Riley is a tragedy, but as is often said, hard cases make bad law.

Under this bill, committing a misdemeanor shoplifting, or even committing no crime at all, can result in a DACA or TPS recipient, someone who may have been in this country for decades, being subject to mandatory detention.

Sadly, there are countless real-life examples of people getting arrested because of mistaken identity through erroneous witness identification, biographical similarities to perpetrators, and errors caused by faulty facial recognition technology.

In a markup we had in the Judiciary Committee last month, Mr. Massie discussed how mistaken identification can deprive someone of their constitutional rights. He noted very real concerns about racial disparities in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition tools. These tools have led to numerous erroneous arrests, mostly of people of color.

For example, just over a year ago, a Detroit woman was arrested for robbery and carjacking after she was improperly identified as the perpetrator by automatic facial recognition search. She was 8 months pregnant when she was arrested. After being held by the police for 11 hours, she was released on a $100,000 bond. It took a month and two hearings for the case against her to be dismissed.

Under this bill, however, if this woman had been on DACA or TPS status, ICE would have been required to detain her upon release, and her U.S. citizen son would have been born in immigration detention even though she had committed no crime.

Mandatory detention of innocent people is not a reasonable or sensible policy choice. This is not where we should be focusing our limited enforcement resources.

It is important to remember that this bill would subject more people to mandatory detention at a time when Republicans refuse to give the Department of Homeland Security the resources it needs to carry out its policies.

The Biden administration is currently detaining 39,000 people a day. That is 5,000 more people than Congress has even provided funding for it to detain.

Congress has never appropriated, and no administration has ever requested, sufficient resources to detain all noncitizens who fall under the ``mandatory detention'' categories. Even former President Trump never tried to detain all migrants subject to mandatory detention.

House Republicans know this, but instead of facing that reality and providing the resources necessary to address weaknesses in the immigration system, they would prefer to demagogue the issue, and they bring us measures like this.

If that wasn't bad enough, this bill also purports to give State attorneys general standing to sue in court for perceived violations of certain sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act, hoping to convince the judicial branch to impose draconian immigration policy preferences that MAGA Republicans have failed to get through

the political branches of the Federal Government.

This bill simply declares that States have standing to sue so long as the State or its residents suffer almost any degree of harm, no matter how trivial, appearing only to exclude financial harms that are less than $100.

We should note that this provision is almost certainly unconstitutional. Just declaring that there is standing does not make it so.

Just last year, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of States' standing to sue the Federal Government over immigration enforcement matters, which this bill appears to be a half-baked attempt to circumvent. In an 8-1 decision, the Court held that Texas and Louisiana lacked Article III standing to bring suit against the Federal Government over its alleged violation of some of the very same immigration statutes that this bill would purport to grant standing to the States to sue over.

In rejecting the States' standing argument, the Court noted, among other things, that lawsuits alleging insufficient arrests or prosecution run against the executive branch's Article II authority to enforce the law, which includes the discretion to determine enforcement priorities in the face of lack of resources and shifting public safety and public welfare needs.

This bill also goes directly against the Supreme Court's settled precedent in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, which explicitly states that a statutory right to sue does not constitute an injury for purposes of standing.

Be that as it may, settled precedent, much like responsible governance, doesn't seem to matter much to the majority. Time and again, Republicans have refused to engage in bipartisan immigration reform. At the behest of Donald Trump, Republicans dismissed out of hand a bipartisan Senate border bill that Senate Minority Leader McConnell called the strongest border bill in 30 years.

In October, the Biden administration sent Congress a supplemental funding request, which included an additional $14 billion for border security. House Republicans refused to schedule a vote on this funding request, which would provide the Biden administration the resources it needs to secure the border and would provide additional support for communities receiving migrants.

Both these bills would have allowed the Biden administration to hire thousands more asylum officers and asylum and immigration judges, so asylum hearings happen in weeks, not years. This would help put an end to what my Republican colleagues refer to as catch and release.

That is the procedure in immigration law that has been used by every administration for decades. What they mean by that is you catch someone, but because of lack of resources, his court date is 3 years from then, so you have to release him pending the court date because he has a credible claim to asylum. However, with the appropriation that the Biden administration had requested, it could be done in weeks, not years, and we wouldn't have the problem of the so-called catch and release.

All they can point to is H.R. 2, which last week had a grand total of 32 ``yes'' votes in the Senate when it was brought up for a vote.

Instead of rushing yet another partisan stunt to the floor, the majority should work with Democrats to pass bipartisan solutions to address the situation at the border. That would be a far better way to truly honor the lives of those we have tragically lost.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ivey), a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker said that illegal aliens who committed crimes should be detained, and, indeed, they should. However, this bill says that illegal aliens who somebody thinks may have committed a crime should be detained mandatorily. That is un- American.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Scalise and the other Republicans are not serious about solving the problem we all talk about. Mr. Scalise says the solution is H.R. 2, a bill so serious it received 32 votes in the United States Senate, a body with 49 Republican Senators.

If the Republicans were sincere and serious about solving this problem, they would vote for the $14 billion that the President has requested to hire more Border Patrol people and more judges so that asylum decisions can be made in weeks and not years, and he wouldn't have the problem of catch and release.

If Republicans were serious, they wouldn't have tanked the Senate bill developed in negotiations with principally Senator Lankford, who is considered the second-most conservative Senator in the Senate, and that bill was going to be agreed to until President Trump decided-- former President Trump and hopefully never again President Trump-- decided that he would rather have an issue for the campaign than solve the problem, so he told the Republicans to tank the bill that they had just written.

Let's talk about hypocrisy. That is what we are hearing in this Chamber. That is what we hear all the time from a Republican Party that loves the rhetoric, that loves to use the victimhood of people like Laken Riley for political purposes, but this is a Republican Party that does not want to solve this problem, will not take any serious step to solve this problem, and is trying to create a fraud on the American people by pretending that it cares about this problem.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to close where I began, by expressing my deepest condolences to the family of Laken Riley. I only wish that we were debating a bill worthy of her name. Instead, we have the latest Republican press release, a bill that serves as an excuse to target and demonize immigrants while making our country no safer. I hope that my Republican colleagues will change course and choose to work with Democrats and with the administration in a constructive manner that improves our immigration system and makes our border more secure.

Until then, I must urge Members to oppose this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1052, I call up the bill (H.R. 7511) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 7511.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today, the House says the name ``Laken Riley'' through H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act.

On this day, 2 weeks ago, the life of a 22-year-old nursing student, Laken Riley, a beautiful and vibrant young woman, came to an abrupt and shocking end, a totally unnecessary end, when she was abducted from her morning run around Lake Herrick Trail on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens and brutally killed, beaten to death and to a state of disfigurement by a criminal alien whom Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas were under legal obligation to detain.

Laken's failure to return home alarmed her roommate, who called police. Police found her discarded body in the woods off the running trail, her skull crushed.

Last Friday, Laken's parents laid their daughter to rest, their lives destroyed by the senseless and depraved actions of a criminal who should not have been here and the callous indifference of the President and the Secretary of Homeland Security.

A Venezuelan, Jose Ibarra illegally entered into our country across the southwest border in 2022. The Biden administration released him, just like millions of others, paroled him into the country to roam wherever he pleased, rather than detaining him as the law required.

Jose Ibarra roamed to New York City. There, in August, NYPD arrested him for driving a scooter without a license with a child on board unprotected by a helmet, and an independent obligation arose for Homeland Security to detain Mr. Ibarra; namely, that he had committed an offense involving moral turpitude by endangering that child. However, NYPD released him and Homeland Security did nothing.

From New York City, Jose Ibarra roamed to join his brother Diego, another criminal illegal alien, in Athens, Georgia. Athens police arrested Diego in September for driving while intoxicated and without a license, also an offense involving moral turpitude which required detention by Homeland Security. However, Homeland Security again did nothing, and Diego, too, was promptly released.

In October, Jose and Diego joined forces to rip off the local Walmart, and it must have been quite something for them to be arrested for shoplifting in this day and age, but arrested they were. Then another basis in law arose for mandatory detention, specifically two or more criminal offenses, by each of them, involving separate criminal acts. Again, Homeland Security utterly disregarded Congress' statutory command and did nothing. The Ibarra brothers were set free upon the community again.

In December, a final chance came to prevent Laken Riley's fate. Athens police arrested Diego again for failure to appear for a fingerprintable offense. Why didn't they arrest Jose? Who knows. Maybe they figured, what is the point? Homeland Security will just continue looking the other way. Even though Diego was also now an absconder, he was released again. The big bureaucratic Department of Homeland Security did nothing.

Secretary Mayorkas was asked whether Jose Ibarra should have been deported before he beat Laken Riley to death. He answered blandly that his agency works closely with law enforcement ``to ensure individuals who pose a threat to public safety are made the highest priority for detention and removal,'' which reminds me of the more than 30 times Secretary Mayorkas testified to Congress under oath that the border was secure.

What the Secretary omitted to explain was the law he laid down in September 2021, the memo to the Department of Homeland Security employees, where he instructed that the grounds specified by Congress for detention would never be the basis standing alone for any detention by Homeland Security; the law according to Alejandro Mayorkas.

Today, the Laken Riley Act presents two simple and straightforward amendments to law to break through the Biden administration's brazen, defiant, and reckless disregard for Laken Riley and all the other vulnerable Americans out there victimized already or soon to be victimized.

First, it specifies theft offenses as a ground mandating the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody criminal illegal aliens like Jose Ibarra and to issue a detainer request to local law enforcement.

How hard is that, Mr. Speaker? Shouldn't illegal aliens be required to be detained at the border in the first place? Shouldn't those who go on to engage in thievery in our country be detained and removed? Who could disagree with that?

If H.R. 7511 only added another detention mandate to the slew that Secretary Mayorkas is brazenly defying even today, then it would be an act of futility. It would be more statutory commands to an administration that is lawless, and it would do nothing to honor the life and memory of Laken Riley.

Therefore, the other essential element of this bill is to confer standing upon State attorneys general to bring civil actions against open-borders executive branch officials who refuse to enforce the Nation's immigration laws.

This provision comes from H.R. 7322, the SUE for Immigration Enforcement Act, introduced by Chip Roy and me. It would empower States to hold Homeland Security accountable in Federal courts for flouting mandatory detention requirements, the limits of parole authority, and visa sanctions against countries that refuse to cooperate with repatriation of illegals removed from our country.

This responds to the Supreme Court's ruling of 2023 in United States v. Texas that States lack standing in such cases, and it follows the roadmap set forth in the Court's opinion in that case inviting Congress to cure the standing defect by specifically authorizing such suits in statute.

The provision confers standing upon a narrowly defined set of plaintiffs, the States, and it authorizes the judiciary to grant redress. As such, this legislation would ensure that harmful abuses of our immigration laws--in fact, those policies set forth by the Biden administration that are in direct conflict and contradiction with the plain meaning of our laws--will not go unchallenged.

H.R. 7511 also honors Laken Riley's life and those who mourn her loss as well as all the other victims of the Biden border crisis.

No law passed by this body can bring back Laken or take away the pain suffered by her family and countless other victims of criminal alien crime. The Laken Riley Act, however, will ensure that illegal aliens who commit theft offenses, as Laken's alleged murderer did, cannot be shielded by the Biden administration's continued reckless and callous indifference.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Molinaro).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), who represents Athens, Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close as well, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

H.R. 7511 is but the latest effort by Republicans to do something about the harm that confronts our Nation from an uncontrolled border by the determined action of President Biden and Democrats.

H.R. 2 is an extensive bill with many provisions and extensive reform. Democrats have ignored it. This bill is exceedingly simple and straightforward. Democrats attack it. The excuses for doing nothing never end.

The only answers offered by Democrats are to spend more money processing more aliens faster into the country, making the problem worse, and yet they always deflect blame to someone else for the calamitous results of their policies.

This bill is very straightforward. The objection that a thief should not be deported until after a conviction leaves Americans to be victimized for all the time that would have gone by until a conviction. It is not required under the law.

The distinction between the point the gentleman from New York made about Mr. Massie's bill concerning the use of facial recognition technology, that is about American citizens. The people involved here have no right to be in this country. They are not supposed to be here.

They also object that the standing change, that the conferral of standing on State attorneys general is unconstitutional, will not work, but it is Justice Kavanaugh in the opinion of the Court in United States v. Texas who said:

For example, Congress might specifically authorize suits

against the executive branch by a defined set of plaintiffs

who have suffered concrete harms by executive under-

enforcement and specifically authorize the judiciary to enter

appropriate orders requiring additional arrests or

prosecutions by the executive branch.

This bill takes that invitation from the Court to act. It is far past the time for President Biden to act. He will not act. Let's act in this United States Congress.

We have the chance to give States the ability to fight back. We have the chance to recognize Laken Riley's story as a tragedy. There need not be other tragedies.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Laken Riley Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North Carolina for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, it is so important that we have this debate on the floor and that we pass the Laken Riley Act.

It would be more significant if later tonight in this very Chamber Joe Biden joined us and said that he was going to finally take action, using the same pen that on day one when he became President he used to undo all of those actions that were securing our border if he would say he is going to reverse those actions.

He can work to restore the remain in Mexico protocol, getting us back to a functioning asylum process. He could take direct action with his own pen, no act of Congress, to end catch and release, so that when people come here by the millions as they have, they are not just allowed to go into the interior of our country where we don't even know where they are going.

Governors can't tell you how many people have come into their States illegally, where they are showing up. You see it in cities where they are showing up and they are shutting down schools and gymnasiums to house people.

This is out of control and Joe Biden created the mess. He could solve it, but short of Joe Biden solving it, the House has taken multiple actions to address it.

This Republican House came together last year to pass H.R. 2, a bill designed to actually secure America's border. We took all of those necessary actions, whether the President wants to or not, doing the things that it takes, working with our Border Patrol agents to secure America's border so that we don't have what we have seen, at least 8 million people that have come across illegally.

When you look at some of the devastating consequences, Laken Riley is just one example. I pray for her and I pray for her family. No family should have to go through what Laken Riley's family is still grieving with today, but, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this is not even an isolated incident.

It is happening over and over again in communities all across America ever since Joe Biden opened our southern border, allowing millions of people to come in. You are seeing countries emptying out prisons to send people here. People on the terrorist watch list, over 140 that we know of on the terrorist watch list, that have been detained. How many that we don't know of that haven't been caught that are here in America planning to do us harm because Joe Biden opened the southern border?

There is serious negative consequences to those actions that Joe Biden took. When you think about Kenner, Louisiana, a community in my backyard, part of which I represent in my district, just days ago a 14- year-old girl was raped by someone here illegally.

You saw just recently where a 2-year-old was murdered by someone here illegally. How many more communities are going to have to suffer? How many more families are going to have to be victims before Joe Biden admits this problem and then works with us to solve it?

They tried passing a bill in the Senate that actually makes it worse, that codifies things like catch and release, and that gives over a billion dollars of your taxpayer money to fund lawyers for people here illegally.

Yes, that was in the Senate bill that even the Senate didn't pass after all of that hoopla about a bipartisan coalescence. They didn't even pass that bill once they read it.

The House did pass a bill to solve this problem. Today, we are coming together to pass another bill here with the Laken Riley Act to solve this problem, but the worst part of it is, this problem should have never happened if Joe Biden didn't take the steps he took with the pen to open the southern border. He could close it himself. He chooses not to.

We came together and said, then we will close it, Mr. President, and issued veto threats on those bills. He wants an open border, but does he want the consequences to?

Will he look those families in the eye and tell them enough is enough and apologize to them? He could do that tonight from that podium. I sure hope he does, but in the meantime what he really needs to do is work with us to end this madness, to secure America's border, and get back to a functioning, legal system of immigration in America like every other country has so that we don't see this endless flow that is devastating communities all across America.

Mr. Speaker, let's pass the Laken Riley Act and, hopefully, there will be no more examples like Laken Riley in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act, and our hearts do go out to her grieving family today.

This bill is in remembrance of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was tragically murdered in my home community of Athens, Georgia, by an illegal alien who should never have even been in the United States. After illegally entering the country, Laken's murderer was arrested by the NYPD in September of 2023 for acting in a manner to injure a minor and for committing a motor vehicle license violation.

Also, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report, this illegal alien went on to shoplift in Georgia the following month. Clearly, this illegal alien had a pattern of criminal history, one that started when he accepted Joe Biden's invitation to illegally enter our country and do so under an abuse of the parole system.

He should never have been allowed to reside in the United States illegally, and ICE should have immediately issued a detainer after he committed these crimes because, ultimately, if ICE had issued a detainer, this illegal alien would never have been in the United States to commit the horrific murder of Laken Riley.

We must enact changes now to protect communities across the country from facing additional avoidable tragedies. H.R. 7511 provides a commonsense solution to do just that. This legislation requires ICE to issue detainers and take custody of illegal aliens who commit crimes like theft, burglary, and larceny.

Additionally, the local jurisdiction, the Clarke County Sheriff's Office, would also have to recognize and act upon the ICE detainer. When you have a sanctuary city like the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government ignoring these detainers, it makes them a magnet for criminal illegal aliens.

Therefore, I call right now on Athens-Clarke County to publicly reject their sanctuary city policy. If they did, it would be a strong step in the right direction toward preventing our citizens from becoming future victims of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens.

Additionally, the Laken Riley Act contains within it Representative Dan Bishop's own legislation that just passed out of the Judiciary Committee. It is called the Standing Up to the Executive branch for Immigration Enforcement Act. Hence, my friend, I want to recognize your part in making this legislation happen.

These important provisions that Representative Bishop authored give State attorneys general standing to bring suit against DHS Secretary Mayorkas, Secretary of State Blinken, and Attorney General Garland for violating certain immigration laws that harm the State or its respective citizens. Representative Bishop's legislation also allows for appropriate injunctive relief and expedites the disposition of such civil actions.

This important legislation is critical. As a cosponsor, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the Laken Riley Act. After all, one of the most formidable ways that Congress can deliver justice to the Laken Riley family is by passing this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Bishop for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have introduced the Laken Riley Act, and I urge you to join me in voting to pass this bill today.

As Joe Biden comes to the Capitol tonight to defend his atrocious record, the House is voting to rebuke him for the open border policies that led directly to Laken Riley's murder.

Enough is enough. The President and the DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have released millions of illegal aliens into this country and they refuse to secure our border and keep Americans safe.

Unfortunately, the man who murdered Laken was among those millions. Despite committing several crimes in multiple jurisdictions, he was allowed to roam free in America before brutally murdering Ms. Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia on February 22.

Mr. Speaker, Laken was only 22 years old, a nursing student. She had her whole life and a bright future ahead of her. This young woman was an exemplary daughter, sister, and friend. She was cherished by so many people for her loving nature and her servant's heart. She would be with us today if elected leaders who took an oath to preserve our Constitution and faithfully execute our laws had kept their word, but they didn't.

While we can't bring Laken back, we must now turn our focus to doing everything we can to prevent this from happening to another American.

The Laken Riley Act is a key piece in our fight to restore the rule of law and get criminal illegal aliens off our street. This legislation will give Immigration and Customs Enforcement more tools. It will add theft to the list of crimes for which the agency must detain and deport an illegal alien.

This is crucial. Many people who commit petty crimes go on to commit worse crimes. Laken's murderer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a prime example of this. Ibarra was cited for shoplifting in Athens, Georgia, just prior to murdering Laken, but under current law, ICE would not have been required to pick up Ibarra, even if local law enforcement had reported him.

Let's change that.

Let's also give States the legal recourse when the Federal Government fails to enforce immigration law. The Laken Riley Act does that. States will be able to sue the Federal Government for injunctive relief when illegals released into this country harm our people.

Lastly, the bill condemns the President's border policies and calls on him to end catch and release, reinstate remain in Mexico, and secure the borders of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, today we act on behalf of those who are no longer with us because of Joe Biden's policies. I thank my colleagues for rallying alongside me to highlight Laken Riley's life these past 2 weeks. Let's continue to pray for her family and friends as they grieve her loss and resolve to continue fighting for the American people against the lawlessness created by this administration.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes'' on the Laken Riley Act, and when it passes, I also urge my colleagues in the Senate to take this up immediately.

Let's ensure justice for Laken Riley.