Laken Riley Act Passes Senate As Catholic Bishops Urge ‘Meaningful Immigration Reform’| National Catholic Register

A bill that would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants who entered the country illegally if they commit certain crimes passed the Senate as Catholic bishops reiterate their call for “meaningful immigration reform.”

The Laken Riley Act would subject immigrants who entered the country illegally to detainment if they are charged with or arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault on an officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury. Those detentions could lead to subsequent deportation proceedings.

The House of Representatives passed a similar bill with the same name earlier this month but did not include assault on an officer or crimes that involve death or serious bodily injury in its version. House lawmakers can either pass the Senate version or offer their own amendments to the bill, which is expected to pass in some form.

Under current law, officials are allowed to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally when they commit those crimes but are not required to do so. The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was murdered by José Antonio Ibarra — a Venezuelan national who was in the country illegally and remained in the country after an earlier arrest for shoplifting.

Riley would have turned 23 years old on Friday, Jan. 10. 

The Republican-led bill received some bipartisan support, passing the House 264-159. The Senate version also received bipartisan support, passing the chamber 64-35. In both chambers, a minority of Democrats joined Republican lawmakers to advance the bills. No Republican in either chamber voted against their version of the bill.

“No family should have to go through what Laken’s has endured,” Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, who introduced the legislation, said on Jan. 7 after the House passed the bill.

“A secure border [and being] pro-immigration are fully compatible,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, said on X after joining the Republican majority to advance the bill. “I proudly voted AYE on [the] final passage of the Laken Riley Act.”

Both bills would also allow states to file lawsuits against the federal government for failing to enforce immigration laws if harm is caused to the state or its residents. Under the proposed law, states could file lawsuits over a decision to release a person from custody or a failure to detain someone who has been ordered to be deported, among other things.

Bishops take no formal stance on bill

Although the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) often takes a position on bills related to immigration, USCCB Spokesperson Chieko Noguchi told CNA that the American bishops have not taken a formal position on this legislation.

Rather, Noguchi said the bishops “continue to urge Congress to pursue meaningful immigration reform that is consistent with the elements long promoted by the bishops.” She provided a link to a January 2025 USCCB document titled “Catholic Elements of Immigration Reform.”

“This includes safeguarding American communities and upholding the rule of law through targeted, proportional, and humane enforcement measures that ensure due process and demonstrate respect for human dignity,” Noguchi said.

At least one prelate, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, has criticized the bill. Speaking to Crux, the bishop emeritus of Brooklyn called the bill and plans for mass deportation “a vigilante approach to a mythical problem that these people are hurting us.”

“It’s an unfortunate situation where you’re not dealing with facts you’re dealing with a prejudice or an idea that once we get rid of all of these undocumented people that the country’s going to be in great shape,” DiMarzio said.

CNA reached out to several bishops who represent dioceses near the southern border to ask their perspectives on the bill, but none were available to provide a comment.

Julia Young, a historian and professor at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that this legislation “doesn’t fundamentally change the immigration system” with systemic reforms. She said that immigration remains a polarizing issue but that “both political parties now agree … our current immigration system is very broken.”

Young, whose work primarily focuses on historical migration, said “concern and fear around immigration in the United States has been present throughout the [country’s] history” and that “concern around immigrant crime has been persistent” as well. 

She said concern about crime has been invoked against Catholic immigrants historically, particularly against Irish immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries who were “accused of being inherently more criminal.”

The influx of Catholic immigrants spurred the Church’s involvement in helping newcomers navigate the immigration system and led to the Church wading into American immigration policy debates, according to Young. At first, she said the Church’s focus was on helping Catholic immigrants, but over time, “they began focusing on immigrants from all over the world; not just immigrants who are Catholics.”

“The history of the Catholic Church in the United States is really linked to the history of immigration to the United States,” Young said.

Chad Pecknold, a professor of historical and systematic theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA “the Church has traditionally taught that the immigration issue is downstream from the right of nations to safeguard their common good” and that it’s “reasonable to legislate” how certain crimes will affect a person’s immigration status.”

“The Catholic Church has a balanced view of what is essentially a prudential matter in which the common good takes precedence in considering who may or may not enter a country,” Pecknold added. 

“Criminal activity should weigh heavily for lawmakers who should use their regnative prudence in arriving at decisions about immigration which are first and foremost right and just for their own people,” Pecknold said.

President Donald Trump, who assumed office on Jan. 20, campaigned on a hard-line approach to illegal immigration, which includes a plan for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, starting with those who have committed crimes while in the United States.

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, who heads the USCCB Committee on Migration, has said he is “concerned” about the incoming president’s deportation plans and that bishops will “raise our voice loudly” if the administration advances plans that violate human rights.

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