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u.s. senate
'Don't Be Fooled': Laken Riley Act Not About Crime by Migrants—It's a Right-Wing Power Grab
"This bill is political grandstanding at its worst," said one lawmaker.
Jan 10, 2025
With the U.S. Senate poised to vote on the Laken Riley Act on Friday, immigrant rights advocates are warning that—despite claims from proponents that the bill is aimed at protecting American communities from violent crime—supporters of the legislation are actually advancing a dangerous "Trojan horse" and securing a power grab for xenophobic right-wing authorities.
The bill is named after Laken Riley, a Georgia woman who was killed last February while she was jogging. Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was convicted of her murder in November, and the case was a focal point of President-elect Donald Trump's campaign last year.
But as Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of immigrant rights group America's Voice, said Thursday, the bill "is filled with unrelated and sweeping measures that won't improve public safety."
Central provisions in the legislation, which passed in the House on Tuesday with the support of 37 Democrats along with the entire Republican caucus, would require immigration officers to detain undocumented immigrants who are accused of theft, including shoplifting—an apparent response to the fact that Ibarra was cited for shoplifting in Georgia but was not detained before he killed Riley.
Critics have expressed outrage over the provision, with Cárdenas saying it would trample "important due process principles—greenlighting detention and deportation for those accused, rather than convicted of low-level crimes."
"It's no surprise Republicans are continuing to exploit a horrific act of violence and portray immigrants as dangerous threats to America, despite the reality that immigrants have a lower crime rate than the native-born," said Cárdenas. "And it also should be no surprise to any close observers of right-wing politics that the bill being pushed this week doesn't seek to improve public safety or even focus on public safety threats."
At Arizona Republic, editor Elvia Díaz advised readers, "Don't be fooled by soundbites."
"Republicans and now Democrats, too, want you to believe the Laken Riley Act is about deporting shoplifters," she wrote. "It's a power grab by states to dismantle federal authority over immigration enforcement."
In a column at MSNBC on Wednesday, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote that Republicans pushing the bill are asking the question: "Who runs the U.S. immigration system?"
The answer, backed up by numerous courts, has been the federal government, but the bill would give broad new authorities to state officials, such as attorneys general, to file legal challenges in order to have specific immigrants detained and to force the State Department to block visas from countries that won't accept immigrants who are deported.
"Giving states a veto power over thousands of decisions made every day by federal law enforcement officers and leaders will complicate immigration issues in every community and threaten to set off international incidents which could hurt U.S. interests around the globe," wrote Reichlin-Melnick.
The visa provision could impact countries such as China and India, which have "historically not cooperated fully with the United States on deportations," and where more than 1.8 million immigrant and short-term visas were issued to nationals in 2023.
"Because the United States is so intertwined with these countries, administrations of both parties have been unwilling to threaten blanket visa bans as a punishment for not accepting deportees," wrote Reichlin-Melnick. "Yet should the Laken Riley Act become law, that decision may no longer be in the hands of our nation's top diplomats and law enforcement officers; it could be in the hands of a single federal district court judge in Texas or Louisiana."
He continued:
What could this look like in practice? Imagine a person from China living in Texas on an H-1B visa who commits an offense that leads to a deportation order. If China does not accept the deportation, [Texas Attorney General] Ken Paxton could go to court seeking to force the federal government to ban all visas from China (or maybe just all H-1B visas) without having to worry about taking the blame for the economic or diplomatic fallout to the United States.
"What happened to Laken Riley was a terrible tragedy, and the perpetrator has been sentenced to life in prison for his heinous acts," wrote Reichlin-Melnick on Wednesday. "But just as Willie Horton's bad acts decades ago were not a justification for supercharging a system of mass incarceration, the heinous acts of Jose Ibarra should not be an excuse to flip our system of constitutional governance on its head and empower individual states and federal judges to run immigration law."
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who opposed the bill this week, said he has heard from "a lot of people who say they support this bill, but who don't seem to know what it really does."
"For example, if this bill is signed into law, a 12-year-old kid brought here by a parent could be LOCKED IN ICE DETENTION if they are accused—not even convicted, simple accused—of stealing a candy bar," McGovern said in a post on X, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement..
Kylie Cheung of Jezebel pointed out that while Republicans have held the Laken Riley Act up as essential legislation to protect women from violence, "these lawmakers don't care about women's safety or high rates of femicide perpetrated by people with citizenship—they've cut all actual resources for victims. They just want to gut basic civil liberties."
Immigration attorney Ben Winograd of the Immigrant & Refugee Appellate Center offered a hypothetical scenario under the bill: "Imagine a man who is a U.S. citizen marries a woman who entered the country illegally. He abuses her constantly, and after learning that she intends to leave him, he calls the police and (falsely) claims that she stole some of his property."
"If the police arrest the woman, she would be subject to mandatory detention while in removal proceedings—even if the police determined that the accusation was bogus," said Winograd. "The Laken Riley Act would allow any person with a grudge against an undocumented immigrant to make them subject to indefinite mandatory detention simply by leveling a false accusation of theft."
All the Senate Republicans are sponsoring the bill, which was cleared for a vote on Thursday, with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) joining them. In order to overcome a filibuster the GOP needs just six more Democrats to support the legislation.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), one of nine senators who opposed advancing the bill on Thursday, said he is in favor of "bipartisan action to fix our broken immigration system."
"I stand ready to work across the aisle to get it done," he said. "Let's start from a foundation grounded in our Constitution."
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'Racist' and 'Classless' Husband of GOP Senator Won't Shake Kamala Harris' Hand
"What an absolutely pathetic display of fragility and hate," said one observer.
Jan 06, 2025
Video of the husband of a Republican U.S. senator rebuffing Vice President Kamala Harris' attempted congratulatory handshake during the lawmaker's swearing-in ceremony went viral Monday, with observers calling the move "classless" and "exactly what is wrong with American culture right now."
Bruce Fischer, husband of third-term GOP Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, dodged Harris' outstretched hand during Friday's swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., offering a mere nod and curt "thank you" in return after his wife took the oath of office.
"It's OK, I won't bite... don't worry," Harris said in response to Mr. Fischer's apparent reluctance to even stand close to her.
Liberals—and some Republicans—dragged Fischer's departure from decorum, which came just weeks before Harris and President Joe Biden leave office and Republican President-elect Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, his vice president, take the reins.
"Bruce Fischer is exactly what is wrong with American culture right now," filmmaker Princella D. Smith said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. "We have put civility on the shelf."
The group Republicans Against Trump also took to X, calling Fischer's move "truly classless."
Former longtime CNN host Don Lemon called Fischer a "racist piece of shit" in a video posted on TikTok.
Liberal social media personality Xander Xjork Anderson called Fischer a "classless asshole" adding, "Vice President Kamala Harris has more dignity and class than every MAGA Republican asshole combined."
"America really screwed up," Anderson added. "Enjoy Trump making America a laughingstock again."
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The Stress of Holiday Shopping Has Been Transferred to Amazon Warehouse Workers
During “peak” season, the time between Amazon Prime Day in October and the holidays, Amazon forces its associates across the country to work overtime.
Dec 27, 2024
At the beginning of 2024, Amazon reported $10.6 billion in profits during the fourth quarter of the previous year, an unexpected level of success which Andrew Jassy, the company’s CEO, attributed to the company’s 14% growth from last year in holiday season sales. Holiday shopping has long been crucial to Amazon’s business model, so much so that Amazon announced in October its intention to hire 250,000 more workers nationwide for the holiday season. But at JFK-8—the Staten Island fulfillment center where workers became the first employees in Amazon’s history to win union recognition in 2022, and have yet to reach a contract agreement with the company—workers have only seen their workloads increase, and are struggling amid greater productivity demands from management.
“During this time of the year, health and safety goes out the window,” says Tristan Martinez, a six-year Amazon employee and organizer for the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). “It’s all about pushing the numbers so they [management] can get their bonuses.”
During “peak” season, the time between Amazon Prime Day (a two day Prime Member exclusive event, during which Amazon promises “epic deals on top brands”) in October and the holidays, Amazon forces its associates across the country to work overtime. This increased demand for labor starts around Prime Day and ramps up as the holiday season approaches. Workers I spoke to at JFK-8 reported shifts up to 12 hours long, with one 30-minute and two 15-minute breaks, five days a week.
Amazon warehouse workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured as workers at other warehouses in the industry.
For most of their shifts, Amazon warehouse workers are on their feet, picking items from inventory and preparing them to get picked out, packing them, and loading them on Amazon’s blue trucks. Several workers I spoke to make long commutes from neighborhoods such as Canarsie, Harlem, and Crown Heights, which usually take upwards of two hours. If they’re lucky with the timing of bus and subway transfers, they would get home at around 9 p.m. that night, only to embark on their commute eight short hours later for the start of another 12-hour shift at 7 a.m.
“We’re not machines. Everyone has their own circumstances,” Jasmine Youma, who has worked as a picker and packer at Amazon for over a year, told me as she rushed into a crowded bus.
She wasn’t the only Amazon worker I spoke to who felt the need to remind me she was human. “They think we’re robots,” said Shayna, a packer of five years who asked that her last name not be used. “If you’re not hitting the numbers, they’ll come out and talk to you.”
Workers across the board feel dehumanized. “Productivity manager to associate relationships are very robotic,” says Jaquan Taylor, who has worked at Amazon for six years. “In order to work as a manager here, you have to lose all sense of humanity.” According to some Amazon associates, the increased productivity demands result in less workplace safety. “They talk about safety, but when it’s time to apply safety, they only look at the numbers,” says Terry, a processing assistant of four years who asked that her last name not be used.
This month, the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), released a report on workplace safety at Amazon Warehouses. The committee found that Amazon warehouse workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured as workers at other warehouses in the industry.
The Senate’s report corroborates the sentiments expressed by Jasmine, Shayna, Jaquan, Terry, and Tristan, finding that “workers are forced to choose between following safety procedures and risking discipline and potential termination for not moving fast enough.” The report also states that Amazon is aware of the dangers to worker safety associated with their productivity demands, but manipulates data to make the problem look less severe.
As a result, Amazon workers all over the world have been organizing for better working conditions. JFK-8 made history two years ago by becoming the first unionized Amazon Warehouse in the United States. Amazon unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) election result in 2022, and has since has since refused to recognize the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and begin contract negotiations, in defiance of the NLRB's orders. In 2024, the company joined SpaceX and Trader Joe’s in filing a federal lawsuit against the NLRB, alleging that the agency’s structure is unconstitutional.
If the courts rule in Amazon’s favor, labor activists fear that it could undo a century of progress on workers’ rights in the United States. Legal actions have not deterred Amazon workers from organizing, with new unions forming in Atlanta, City of Industry, and San Bernardino with the help of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On December 21, 2024, Amazon Teamsters at JFK-8 began their strike, joining eight other Amazon warehouses in California, New York, and Illinois.
At JFK-8, the NLRB found that Amazon retaliates against employees who support the union. The union contends that several organizers have been terminated for their union activity, among them Christian Smalls, Sultana Hossain, and Pasquale Cioffi. Martinez, who has been involved in organizing at JFK-8 since 2020, describes his experience as “coming every day with a target on your back. That’s what it’s like working here whether you’re an organizer or not.”
Though most of the workers I spoke to were not actively involved in organizing, their general sentiments toward the union were positive. Workers expressed excitement at the prospect of longer breaks, shorter hours, better pay, and more reliable transportation.
Amazon workers’ labor is visible everywhere this city, from the trucks stopped on neighborhood streets, to the packages that appear on every other doorstep. The workers themselves are hardly ever seen, spending most of their time in a part of the city that rarely crosses the minds of tourists and locals alike. In the midst of the holiday season, customers appreciate the convenience of Amazon’s quick deliveries and endless catalogue of goods.
Rather than rushing around the city, waiting in lines, and lugging bags onto crowded trains, New Yorkers can do their holiday shopping in just a few clicks. Yet, the holiday stress does not cease to exist. It’s only transferred somewhere else, to someone else, several trains, buses, and ferries away. Far enough to be forgotten, but not so far that it affects the convenience of two-day delivery. The convenience and savings come at a high, yet largely invisible, price. As Martinez puts it, “people bleed to make sure your packages are delivered on time.”
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