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