Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin help Republicans to pass anti-immigrant bill

Two days after I reported that Rep. Hillary Scholten voted with the Republicans to pass an anti-immigration bill, both Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin also vote with Republicans on the same trumpian anti-immigration bill.

In the Senate case, there were even more Democrats that voted with Republicans on the Laken Riley Act, with only 9 Senate Democrats voting no, according to CNN.  A Politico article came with the headline, Large swath of Senate Dems vote to advance GOP’s immigration bill. 

Reuters reported the same thing, but included what appears to suggestion some of the motivation behind the Democrats voting with Republicans, stating:

Many of the Democrats who supported the bill hailed from states that Trump won in the November, including Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia. Peters and Ossoff are among the one-third of the senators up for reelection next year.

I checked the websites and social media of both Senators Peters and Slotkin and neither of them posted anything about their vote. In an Associated Press article, I did find a comment from Senator Slotkin. The AP reporter wrote:

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a freshman Democrat who was elected in November, posted on X that “Michiganders have spoken loudly and clearly that they want action to secure our southern border. We must get past petty partisanship that continues to dominate the immigration debate.”

The harsh reality is that the Laken Riley Act, if signed into law, will most certainly increase detentions and deportations of immigrants. This is what Michigan Senators Peters and Slotkin voted for, which not only doesn’t demonstrate any real intent to fight against the incoming Trump Administration, more importantly it means they are complicit in the harm that will only increase against the immigrant community.