The 119th Congress’ first policy order of business was to bring back an old bill that had passed the House last year — the Laken Riley Act, named for the University of Georgia student murdered in 2024 by a migrant who had entered the U.S. illegally and had a previous arrest record. The bill would mandate the detention of undocumented immigrants who have been charged with theft or burglary.
Last year, 37 Democrats, including all of Nevada’s, voted with all Republicans in the House to pass the bill; this time around, the legislation attracted 48, indicating the new political realities on immigration Democrats are considering after the 2024 election.
We’ll explore those realities below.
The News of the Week: Laken Riley Act
For years, the contours of the immigration debate — and the reason Congress has been unable to pass meaningful immigration legislation since the Reagan era — have been that Democrats’ top priority was to provide a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented residents of the U.S., while Republicans’ was to increase border and immigration enforcement.
Many Democrats still consider protection for Dreamers — beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — a red line. But the politics of immigration are shifting, as evidenced by all three House Democrats from Nevada voting again for the Laken Riley Act after supporting it last year.
People in the U.S. illegally are already subject to deportation when convicted of a felony. But the Laken Riley Act would require local law enforcement officials to detain undocumented immigrants charged or arrested for nonviolent crimes — regardless of if they’ve been convicted.
That change has troubled immigration advocates such as Make the Road, which says the bill would empower anti-immigrant attorneys general and increase incidents of racial profiling.
Michael Kagan, an immigration law professor at UNLV, cautioned that the bill gives inordinate power to local law enforcement and undermines due process.
“It will take parents away from kids because of old shoplifting cases,” Kagan wrote in a Substack post. “And it betrays the basic principle of innocent until proven guilty, the idea that everyone should get their day in court.”
In the Senate, meanwhile, a large bipartisan majority (84-9) — including Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) — voted to advance debate on the bill.
“Nevadans want us to keep the community safe,” Cortez Masto said, explaining her vote.
When asked if she was concerned about due process, she noted that undocumented immigrants would still maintain their broader rights as immigrants in detention facilities, including access to an attorney.
Many Democrats — including the Nevadans that voted for it in the House — hope the amendment process in the Senate will be used to protect Dreamers or Temporary Protected Status recipients from the new legal standard for detention.
“If you’re here undocumented, and you commit a crime, you should be arrested,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) said. “It’s not the perfect bill, obviously. My hope is they have some amendments that deal with some of the imperfections.”
When asked what amendments she was looking for, Lee said, “I’d love a little more due process.”
Cortez Masto said she was also hopeful there would be a robust amendment process; that decision is up to Senate Republican leadership.
The Nevada Angle: Swing state politics
Policy changes pertaining to undocumented immigrants — be they congressional or executive — have the potential to upend Nevada, which has the highest percentage of undocumented workers in its workforce of any state.
And the Nevada delegation is a good barometer for how swing state Democrats will be voting during the next two years, as the party reckons with where it went wrong in 2024 — even without a Senate race this cycle.
When swing-district or moderate Democrats vote against leadership, Lee is typically the first one to jump. Horsford is next likeliest. But when all three vote with the Republican majority, it typically means the issue at hand resonates across Southern Nevada.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), who often talks about the frequency of mixed-status families in her district, said she would support an amendment process that would offer more protections for Dreamers and TPS recipients. But she was firm in her support of the bill.
“I don’t think everybody who’s crossing the border is a criminal,” Titus said. “But [for] those who are, like anybody who breaks law, there are consequences.”
Kagan, who opposes the bill on the policy merits, also argues that the politics of it are troublesome. When the discourse around immigrants is connected to crime, he wrote, public sentiment turns against immigrants; by contrast, when people consider the deportation of long-term residents, they are more troubled.
Democrats, he argues, are ceding the political terrain on immigration to Republicans in a way that will only backfire.
Nevada’s elected Democrats said they were supportive of the policy on its legislative merits. But it’s worth noting that all of them won their most recent elections by single-digit margins — and immigration routinely polls as the second-biggest issue among voters.
Before the election, when Democrats controlled the Senate, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never brought the bill to the floor for a vote.
The Impact
Nevada has an estimated 190,000 undocumented people in the state. One nuance of the Laken Riley Act is that it transfers significant federal immigration enforcement authority to states. It would allow attorneys general to seek a court order for the deportation of any individual, even if federal immigration authorities are not pursuing a detention or deportation.
If passed in its current form, the partisanship of attorneys general would be highly relevant to determining how punitive various states are in seeking detentions and deportations. Nevada’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, could find himself at odds with the Trump administration and have discretion to pursue or not pursue various cases.
Around the Capitol
2️⃣Rosen plans for term two — In an interview, Rosen detailed her plans for her second term: focus on bipartisan bills and Nevada-centric priorities — given that she’s serving in the minority. The first step is to reintroduce legislation that focuses on nationwide issues with Republican partners, including a bill to create technical apprenticeships and community college programs for homebuilders, a bill to allow small businesses access to federal resources to set up child care programs and legislation to invest in the training of nurses in rural areas.
She’ll also reintroduce the Washoe County lands bill, which passed out of committee but never got a vote on the floor last Congress.
And in her meetings with Trump Cabinet nominees, she’s focusing on Nevada priorities — tourism infrastructure, Brightline West, the lithium loop and broadband.
🎖️Capt. Brown goes to Washington — Sam Brown may not have won Nevada’s U.S. Senate race, but it turns out he’ll be going to Washington after all. President-elect Donald Trump named Brown the undersecretary of memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, putting him in charge of the maintenance and operations of veterans’ cemeteries. The position requires Senate confirmation.
🚙Buzzer beater EV charger announcement — With time running out on the Biden administration, agencies are working to get new awards to states and localities. On Wednesday, the Department of Transportation granted $3.2 million for electric vehicle charging stations in Las Vegas. The money will go toward the construction of 185 ports across seven new stations.
🗻Rubies secured — On Dec. 30, the Biden administration honored a longstanding request of Cortez Masto and initiated the process to withdraw the Ruby Mountains from oil, gas and geothermal exploration for 20 years.
The mountain range, situated in northeastern Nevada, would still be open to mining. The withdrawal now moves to a 90-day comment period, bumping into the beginning of the Trump administration.
👮End of the Frierson era at USAO — U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada Jason Frierson announced he’ll resign Jan. 17, after serving nearly three years in the position. The move is standard for U.S. attorneys, who typically resign or are asked to resign by new presidents when they take office.
Trump has not yet announced who he plans to nominate to be the Department of Justice’s representative in Nevada. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) met in December to compile a list of names to pass on to the Trump team.
What I’m Reading
NPR: A wage hike for home health care workers in Nevada is proving game-changing
#NVLegMatters
The Nevada Independent: Analysis: How did Nevada use its $2.7 billion American Rescue Plan funds?
The enormous influx of federal cash changed Nevada’s budget outlook during the past four years.
Military.com: Air Force veteran tells the story of hidden health risks at Nevada Test Site
It’s long been a bipartisan priority of the Nevada delegation to get working at the Nevada Test and Training Range counted as a presumptive exposure for health care purposes.
Notable and Quotable
“People expect us to be practical. That’s why sometimes they get frustrated when we don’t do things, [because] we don’t agree on everything.”
— Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), on lessons that Democrats need to better understand about swing state voters
Vote of the Week
H.R.23 — On Passage: Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act
This bill, which passed the House, would sanction officials at the International Criminal Court over their decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And it proves my earlier point — Titus is typically the least likely of the three Nevada Democrats to flip.
AMODEI: Yes
HORSFORD: Yes
LEE: Yes
TITUS: No
