What’s changed?
The Department of Homeland Security has estimated the Laken Riley Act would cost $26.9 billion in the first year to implement, including an increase of 110,000 ICE detention beds.
“The bill’s authors claimed it’s going to result in the arrest and detention of serious criminals, but it will not do that because it’s a totally unfunded mandate,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
On the whole, there is no evidence that immigrants are more prone to violent crime. Several studies have found immigrants commit lower rates of crime than those born in the U.S. Groups that advocate for restrictive immigration policies dispute or dismiss those findings.
Under the legislation, federal authorities would be required to detain any migrant arrested or charged with crimes a minor as shoplifting.
Watch out for HR 722
Most U.S. abortions are now performed with medication rather than surgical procedures and much of the anti-abortion effort is aimed at limiting access to those pills. A lawsuit seeking to restrict access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used together for medication abortions
The states want it to be allowed only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy, rather than the current 10, and to require three in-person doctor’s visits, eliminating telehealth prescriptions.
Abortion rights advocates worry Trump’s administration could start enforcing the Comstock Act, a 19th century law barring materials used in abortions from being mailed, which hasn’t been enforced for close to 100 years.
An Indiana lawmaker has proposed criminalizing shipping the drugs to individuals in the state. Several other states already have similar laws, which are among the priorities for anti-abortion groups.
In Oklahoma, a GOP lawmaker is proposing a law that would allow women who obtain abortions to be charged with murder.
A measure introduced in Mississippi, which echoes laws adopted in the past two years in Idaho and Tennessee, criminalizes helping a minor obtain an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian. A key difference: Mississippi’s calls for penalties up to life in prison.
The Tennessee law, which has been put on hold by a judge, has a maximum punishment of a year in prison while Idaho’s law calls for up to five years.
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