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January 16, 2025

NIAC Action Opposes S. 5/H.R. 29 – The Laken Riley Act

National Iranian American Council Action strongly opposes S. 5/H.R. 29, the Laken Riley Act. These concerns have deepened following the Senate’s failure to adopt the common-sense amendment from Sen. Coons (D-DE), SA 23, which would have removed deeply concerning and radical provisions of the bill that could entirely up-end legal immigration as we know it.

While some portions of the bill are duplicative of existing policy, deeply concerning provisions contained in Section 3 of the bill could open a pandora’s box of litigation against the federal government that grinds legal immigration and visa issuances to a halt for many immigrant communities. 

The federal government is entrusted with overseeing U.S. immigration policy, which has been affirmed by the Supreme Court in multiple rulings. Yet provisions in S. 5/H.R. 29 would overturn this longstanding precedent and provide state attorneys general blanket standing to sue the federal government over a broad array of immigration policies. As noted by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, newly empowered attorneys general could sue “to force a secretary of state to invoke a Cold War-era law that authorizes the U.S. government to issue sweeping visa bans to countries that do not accept the deportation of their own nationals, even if the secretary had chosen not to invoke that authority.” The list of countries that do not fully cooperate with the U.S. on deportations is incredibly broad, and includes both Iran as well as China and India – recipients of over 1.8 million immigrant and nonimmigrant visas in FY 2023.

The implications of such a change should be apparent and instill caution in Senators. Individuals from Iran and other countries who could be severely impacted by the second and third order impacts of S. 5/H.R. 29 come to the United States for humanitarian reasons, to contribute to the economy and pursue the American dream or even simply come for a wedding, to help U.S. citizens welcome the birth of a child or attend a funeral of a loved one. Congress shouldn’t act to help sever these links all as part of some ill-devised political scheme to appear tough on immigration.

National Iranian American Council Action strongly opposes S. 5/H.R. 29 in its present form, and urges Members to seek changes that safeguard the immigration system from bad faith efforts to disrupt and dismantle it, and to work to stop the worst case scenarios presented by this bill from coming to fruition.

For more on the bill, please see the National Immigration Law Center’s breakdown here.

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