NEW YORK, CMC – Two Caribbean immigrant advocacy teams have urged the Senate to flatly reject a invoice anticipated to be handed on Friday within the US Home of Representatives that may permit the deportation of undocumented Caribbean and different immigrants who’re charged with nonviolent crimes, together with housebreaking, theft, larceny or shoplifting,
Make the Highway New York (MRNY) and the San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) on Wednesday joined the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella coverage and advocacy group that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights teams all through New York, in strongly condemning the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29), describing it as “an overreach.”
The laws is known as after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta College nursing pupil, who was killed whereas jogging on February 22, 2024, on the College of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.
Venezuelan nationwide José Antonio Ibarra, 26, who had illegally entered the USA, was discovered responsible of Riley’s homicide on November 20, 2024, and is presently serving life in jail with out the potential of parole.
With US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation of Caribbean and different immigrants in thoughts, 48 Democrats within the Home of Representatives voted on Tuesday with all Home Republicans in passing the Laken Riley Act.
The measure appears headed for enactment with bipartisan help within the US Senate, which plans to undertake the laws on Friday.
“The Senate should reject this misguided laws,” Theo Oshiro, MRNY’s co-executive director, informed the Caribbean Media Company (CMC). “This invoice would trigger irreparable hurt to our communities by increasing obligatory detention and letting anti-immigrant state attorneys normal successfully management federal immigration coverage by way of litigation every time they oppose releasing somebody from immigration custody.
“We all know that Donald Trump has vilified immigrants to divide the American individuals, however it’s unconscionable of elected officers to green-light these merciless insurance policies,” added Oshiro.
“Immigrants are entitled to due course of, similar to everybody else on this nation. We’re not pawns to be offered out to attain political factors,” he continued. “Immigrants are our household, neighbors, buddies, and coworkers. They now need to reside in concern with a goal on their backs.
“With a rise in xenophobic sentiment being spewed by political leaders, there’s now a fair increased probability that immigrants can be racially profiled and arrested for a criminal offense they didn’t commit—that in merely going to highschool or work, they is perhaps separated from their family members perpetually,” he stated.
MRNY’s co-executive director stated that low-income Black, Brown, and immigrant communities “already undergo disproportionate impacts of police violence.
“This laws solely provides to that burden,” he stated. “The Senate should step in and shield households all around the nation from this harmful federal authorities overreach.”
HBA stated whereas it strongly condemns the homicide of Laken Riley, it believes the passage of the Laken Riley Act by the US Home of Representatives “constitutes an overreach.”
“The invoice is a draconian piece of laws that undermines America’s dedication to human rights, criminalizes probably the most weak, and dismantles vital asylum protections,” Guerline Jozef, HBA’s govt director, informed CMC. “The Laken Riley Act is a devastating assault on those that are fleeing violence, political persecution, and excessive poverty.
“As an alternative of addressing the foundation causes of migration, this invoice seeks to shut doorways, weaponize paperwork, and strip away the authorized and humanitarian safeguards that outline our nation’s values,” she added. “This laws is a direct affront to America’s longstanding custom of providing refuge to the oppressed.
“The Laken Riley Act doesn’t improve safety or equity; it institutionalizes cruelty, targets asylum seekers, and denies security to those that want it most, together with Haitians escaping political violence and insecurity,” Jozef continued. “At a time when Haitians and different marginalized teams face unprecedented crises, the passage of this act sends a transparent and chilling message: the lives of Black and Brown migrants are disposable.
Jozef stated HBA, due to this fact, urges the US Senate to “reject this laws and calls on all People to face in solidarity with migrants and asylum seekers.
“Collectively, we should uphold the rules of compassion, equity, and justice that this nation was constructed upon,” she stated.
On Tuesday, Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s president and chief govt officer, famous, “In America, everyone seems to be afforded due course of below the regulation. Everybody deserves their day in court docket and the prospect to argue for his or her innocence.
“Nonetheless, Congress is now taking a draconian flip in direction of denying individuals this elementary Constitutional proper,” Awawdeh stated. “We all know that Black and Brown People – and New Yorkers – are disproportionately focused by regulation enforcement.
“If this invoice turns into regulation, immigrants who’re swept up on this enforcement, with out even being convicted of a criminal offense, could possibly be completely separated from their households earlier than having the chance to defend themselves in a court docket of regulation – in direct violation of their Constitutional rights,” he warned.
Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, stated on the Home flooring on Tuesday: “Folks should have their day in court docket and are harmless till confirmed responsible. That appears to be one thing that almost all (Republicans) has forgotten or doesn’t appear to care about.”
Final month, Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke joined US lawmakers and immigration advocates in calling on the Biden administration to guard Black immigrant communities throughout the uninteresting duck session.
The legislators stated they have been significantly involved about how Trump’s proposed immigration insurance policies will influence Black communities and households of combined standing.
Trump, who can be sworn in on January 20.
