The bill was all negotiated and then Trump sunk it from the sidelines.

Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) signing on as co-sponsors
Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) signing on as co-sponsors
Mark Kelly (Ariz.),
Jon Ossoff (Ga.),
Gary Peters (Mich.),
Jacky Rosen (Nev.),
Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.)
Elissa Slotkin (Mich.)

I was reading (probably something from DU) that really concerns me:

It will turn Americans against each other, very quickly.

Here are my concerns:

Immigrants that are here without documentation ALREADY can be deported for felony crimes. It is already the law, and I think that is appropriate.

The new bill will also include misdemeanors (i.e. jay walking, or any kind of lesser crimes than felonies)
It also includes deportation for /simply an accusation/ of a crime, which anyone can make against another citizen (this is going to turn this country into how Germany was, where people snitched on their neighbors, whether the crime was real or imagined)

To me, this is terrifying, and I am not a person of color. While all this is happening, and the 'I think they are illegal' arrests and people are gathered up, it is important to note that these people will no rights, because they are automatically deemed non-citizens, and so they do not have the constitutional right to a trial or anything like that. They can be held for years and years without charges even being made.

Combine that for the Corporate (greed) need for low wages workers (especially with all the immigrants removed), and what the prison industry already does to hire out for a whopping $8.00/day prison workers (did you know a lot of prison workers are out there right now fighting fires? getting paid a pittance for putting the actual lives on the line), this could be a pipeline for slavery. That is right, slavery.

The horrible future I am seeing is masses of brown-skinned people scooped up and put into an American Gulag system. God I hope I'm wrong. The sick feeling in my stomach tells me differently. It won't be long before they start going after people for their political beliefs. To feed the need for cheap labor (because of GREED)

Why do so many humans have that flaw?

is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense,”;

It obviously includes some misdemeanors. I also don't see "jaywalking" there, so that's not included, nor are a lot of other misdemeanors. A a mere accusation by a citizen won't necessarily result in triggering this law. Charged with a crime, sure. "Arrested for" seems a bit overkill to me and a court will quickly say that implies a finding of false arrest, otherwise a cop could just arrest anybody, book them, and have them deported. "I thought I saw him take something--oops, too late, too bad, so sad." So provable probable cause for detention at a minimum. Or maybe there's some standing precedent or statute that already clarifies this, I dunno.

Further,

.

I take this to mean that if a jurisdiction decides not to inform ICE or requires a warrant of detainer that might not be forthcoming in the 20 minutes between request at 11 pm and release because the jurisdiction wants to game the system or the 24 hours between detention and release because ICE practice is to game the system, others could go over the local jurisdiction's head and the local ICE office and compel ICE to detain--with a suit forthcoming if ICE fails to follow the law fairly rigorously.

Notice, this is really letting the Lilliputians do a Gulliver on city, state, and federal officials. But I know a lot of people upset, R, L, and center, precisely because so many places and levels of government have decided what federal laws passed, they'd say, "in Our Democracy, under the rule of law and not of men," they want to actually respect.

And, yes, it would seriously tie up courts and make the city, state, federal governments spend a lot of lawyer time on a ton of cases like this, if citizens so desire. And you know that some RW advocacy group will be out there with their "pro bono" lawyers making sure that happens.

It's entirely reasonable to disagree with the bill, but for such a simple bill that's fiercely partisan in origin and incredibly controversial for many it's also reasonable to really hew to the text.

This'll quickly go to SCOTUS since some will argue that without conviction with adequate legal representation and chance to adequate appeal, deportation is a violation of due process, so expect it to possibly pass and, if so, upon very speedy by an ally-jurisdiction of the bill's civil opponents, have a court find first and all later implementation blocked pending a years' long legal process.

Thank you for taking the time to so thoughtfully and clearly express your knowledge of the bill. It sounds like my assumptions were incorrect (thank goodness!), and I am talked down off the cliff. For now. I'm going to have to read up more on this.

Again, thank you!

It is bad as you thought it was before reading any posts here on DU. Probably worse.

Who knows what to believe any more. Google? My trust in google is dwindling. I wouldn't google for a handyman. So many people out to scam you.

I'm not a lawyer. I worked for the Fed Judiciary for 21 years though, and the Courts are the last standing pillar from what I can see, and that is being chipped away daily.

I wonder if this is how decent Germans felt when this was happening to their country.

Some of those convictions already results in deportation [i]after sentences are served. Deporting people without a conviction and sentence is not a good idea.

Even if the charges for a petty theft charge 10 or 20 years ago were dropped and the crime itself was not grounds for deportation or inadmissibility, they would be now.

Are you a lawyer? Most specifically an immigration lawyer? Honest curiosity.

I became curious about this bill and did a quick search. It appears that this crazy bill would target people who in the past simply admitted to the "essential elements of a crime". Even if under TPS or DACA.

So for example, say someone was arrested for petty theft 20 years ago -the arrest alone would trigger being detained even if the person was found innocent or the charges were dismissed, no statute of limitations.

This sounds pretty radical and overreaching to me. And for so many Dems to go along with it, it's extremely disappointing.

of our red states have tried to declare. Going so far, even, to say screw the federal government, they'll do it their way. BUT it is in the constitution... so how can they rule against the constitutional federal government and vote FOR those same rules and regulations to be governed by the states, except to either completely kill the constitution, try to get the constitution changed, or just freaking secede already.

Call your senators. Tell them to vote NO on S.5, the “Laken Riley Act”

https://www.aclu.org/documents/letter-to-representatives-requesting-a-no-vote-on-the-laken-riley-act

That ACLU letter helped clear up my confusion. It IS worse than I thought.

Sometimes I hate being part of the human race.

I don't understand how people can do such horrible things to other humans.

I think I need to go look at the deer and turkey outside.

I might need a good cry. And it isn't even 1/20 yet.

... first they came for the immigrants...

Yup, time for a change.