Rep. Scholten votes with the Republicans to further criminalize the undocumented immigrant community

On Tuesday, the House voted to pass a GOP-led bill to require detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes. 

The bill that passes in the House is known as the Laken Riley Act. The legislation is named after a Georgia student who was killed last year while she was out for a run. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in the case that reignited a national debate over immigration and crime. 

The bill requires detention of migrants, including those who have been permitted to seek asylum in the U.S., if they have been accused of theft, burglary or shoplifting, according to an article from The Hill.

According to a CBS news story, “The legislation also includes a provision that would empower state attorneys general who claim their state or its residents have been harmed by immigration policies to sue the Department of Homeland Security.” 

These provisions are clearly designed to attack the undocumented immigrant community. Think about it. Why do we need this legislation, when there are plenty of laws on the books that will charge people with shoplifting or theft, regardless of one’s immigration status.

Scholten and the Democrats

3rd Congressional Rep. Hillary Scholten was one of 48 Democrats that voted with Republicans to pass this legislation, which once again demonstrates how Democrats also embrace more draconian policies regarding immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants.

Scholten’s vote should come as no surprise to those who don’t have partisan blinders on. GRIID deconstructed a Scholten political ad in October of last year, which clearly showed that Scholten wants a more militarized border. One thing I said in that article was, “what Hillary Scholten and the Democratic Party is doing is adopting a slightly milder version of what Trump wants to do regarding immigration policy.” 

Some news reports are saying that the Laken Riley Act might have a harder time passing in the Senate. However, in a recent CNN story they included a comment from Michigan Senate Democrat Gary Peters who told CNN that he plans to vote for the Laken Riley Act. Asked why, Peters said, “border security and keeping Americans safe.”

What is really at issue here is that politicians want us to buy into the idea that we should fear immigrants – especially undocumented immigrants – and equate immigrants with increased crime. 

Fortunately, the facts can dismantle the mantra of “undocumented immigrants are criminals.” The National Institute of Justice wrote in September of 2024, “An NIJ-funded study examining data from the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated the rate at which undocumented immigrants are arrested for committing crimes. The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.”

The American Immigration Council compared crime data to demographic data from 1980 to 2022, the most recent data available. The data showed that as the immigrant share of the population grew, the crime rate declined. In 1980, immigrants made up 6.2 percent of the U.S. population, and the total crime rate was 5,900 crimes per 100,000 people. By 2022, the share of immigrants had more than doubled, to 13.9 percent, while the total crime rate had dropped by 60.4 percent, to 2,335 crimes per 100,000 people. Specifically, the violent crime rate fell by 34.5 percent and the property crime rate fell by 63.3 percent.

The Migration Policy Institute wrote in October of last year, “A growing volume of research demonstrates that not only do immigrants commit fewer crimes, but they also do not raise crime rates in the U.S. communities where they settle. In fact, some studies indicate that immigration can lower criminal activity, especially violent crime, in places with inclusive policies and social environments where immigrant populations are well established.”

In an NPR story from March of 2024, it states:

Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University. Economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.

In a Brennan Center for Justice article from May of last year, they write: “When looking specifically at the relationship between undocumented immigrants and crime, researchers come to similar conclusions. Numerous studies show that undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime; research examining crime rates in so-called sanctuary cities also found no discernable difference when compared to similarly situated cities without sanctuary policies. One study that focused on drug crimes and driving under the influence found that unauthorized immigration status was associated with reductions in arrests for those offenses.” 

One last example is from Reuters in September of 2024, where they did a fact check of a political ad from 2024, shown here on the right. Reuters writes:

“There is no evidence to suggest undocumented immigrants are responsible for 4,000 U.S. deaths every year, contrary to social media posts sharing the unsubstantiated statistic. There is no nationwide data on crimes committed specifically by undocumented immigrants, but research shows they do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans. “We know of no national statistics on the numbers of deaths committed by unauthorized immigrants,” Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director of the Migration Policy Institute think tank, said in an email. Despite the lack of official data, there is significant research demonstrating “unauthorized immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S. born,” Mittelstadt said.”

This is the political climate we are facing with the incoming Trump Administration that wants to engage in mass deportations. It doesn’t seem like the Democratic Party is going to put up a fight on this matter. In fact, their actions demonstrate that they are endorsing the horrendously xenophobic anti-immigration platform that the Republicans are pushing. 

I want to end this post with the words of Greg Grandin, historian and author of numerous books, including The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. Grandin wrote these words just after the 48 Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act. 

“Democrats falling over themselves to give Trump a big early win, thinking that in six years, voting yes on this monstrous bill is going to yield more  political benefit than standing up and articulating a moral alternative now.  If this keeps up, the political system is going to move so far to the right, all without the Hitlerite coup  resistance liberals and MSNBC historians have been fear mongering about for a decade.  All that wasted energy that could have been put into a building a populist, forward looking alternative to trumpian brutalism.”