On January 7, 2025, the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, H.R. 29. 

This bill isn’t about public safety. It’s a backdoor to mass detention and deportation that will create chaos in the courts and our communities, endanger the 1.7 million undocumented Asian immigrants and 14,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) DACA recipients, and threaten the ability of AAPI women and people of all genders fleeing violence and persecution to seek asylum in the future.

Soon, this legislation will be voted on by the Senate. We need to tell our Senators to defeat this dangerous attack on immigrant families. Use the form at the bottom of the page to find contact information for your Senators, and call or email to tell them to vote NO on Senate Bill 5, the Laken Riley Act.

Talking Points you can use in your call:

  • This bill would result in mandatory detention for individuals arrested for certain crimes including petty crimes such as shoplifting even if no criminal charges were ever brought. 
  • Even a simple arrest without any further prosecution could lead to the indefinite incarceration of certain noncitizens, including undocumented people and DACA recipients.  
  • This bill would authorize states to seek federal court orders forcing the executive branch to detain and deport specific people, overturn individual humanitarian parole decisions, and cease issuing visas to entire countries. This would threaten to upend our immigration legal system, with potential impacts reaching from the local to the international level.  

Read more from the National Immigration Law Center: Five Things to Know about the Laken Riley Act.

Please find your senators now using this form and ask them to reject this dangerous bill and vote NO on Senate Bill 5, the Laken Riley Act.