The Scene
Last week, Republicans announced that the Laken Riley Act would be their first priority in the new Congress. Named for a Georgia college student whose killer came into the country illegally, it would mandate detention, without bond, for any undocumented immigrant charged with a crime — not just convicted — and allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government for damages caused by the perpetrators.
It moved faster than either party anticipated, picking up 48 Democratic votes in the House, including some from incumbents who’d previously opposed it. On Thursday, most Senate Democrats voted to proceed to debate and amendments on the bill. It was a turn that shocked immigrant rights groups, who had generally focused on the new powers it would grant Republicans like Ken Paxton in Texas or Ashley Moody in Florida. Two Texas Democrats backed the bill twice; Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat and leader on immigration issues in the party, voted against it. She talked with Americana about why she did, why so many Democrats and activists have lost their footing, and what needs to happen next.
The View From Veronica Escobar
David Weigel: Were you surprised to see so many colleagues, including people who’d voted against the last version of this bill, end up supporting it?
Veronica Escobar: Mildly surprised. I’d anticipated that we would be losing more and more Democrats on the immigration issue, and I think all of this could have been prevented. Unfortunately, many of these bills are only going to make the immigration system far worse and will move us further and further away from a real solution.
The Democratic supporters of the bill who I talked to focused only on the detention piece of it. Do you think they were aware of the powers it gives to Republican attorneys general?
I honestly have not had a conversation with any of my colleagues who voted for it, although I do want to reach out and learn more about their thoughts — and whether they really understand the consequences that we’re going to live with once this becomes law. Most policymakers, and most Americans, don’t really understand how byzantine and complex immigration law already is. Many people don’t understand why we’ve seen the number of people crossing the border grow over the years, including during the Trump years.
Most voters just want it fixed. My guess is that many of my colleagues are responding to that demand, which I agree with. Congress needs to fix this.
How do you anticipate Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton would use the powers handed to them in this bill?
My fear is that many red states, including my own, will use this bill as a vehicle to force communities to engage in mandatory long-term detention of immigrants. And what worries me about that is that they will use local resources meant to keep local communities safe, meant to enforce local laws, as a tool to help Donald Trump. If that were to happen, that definitely makes communities like ours less safe, and it makes local property taxpayers foot the bill for long term mandatory detention.
Imagine that Ken Paxton says, “I’m gonna sue, because I want to see even more expansive mandatory detention. Dallas County, Bexar County, Harris County, El Paso County, I want all of your local jails to be made available to help support ICE facilities.” We have already seen this happen in El Paso. The county jail would have to release prisoners who’ve engaged in aggravated assault, domestic violence, things that make us unsafe. They’d have to release people like that to make room for migrants.
That’s already happened under Greg Abbott, under Operation Lone Star. He appointed a placeholder, a Republican, as our district attorney. Hundreds of migrants were charged with some misdemeanor. The county jail had to make that decision, which criminals to release in order to make way for migrants.
Why did Trump and Republicans do better in El Paso County last year, even after living through that?
I’ll tell you our early assessments. What happened in El Paso is what happened all over the country. A lot of Democrats stayed home, and a lot of low-propensity voters turned out, people who maybe get their information from social media. I completely understand why not just El Pasoans, but Americans throughout the country, felt deeply frustrated and even angry about Washington’s inability to address what was happening at the border. Unfortunately, Republicans have been very effective at diverting blame. I’m not saying Democrats are blameless, but Republicans have diverted away from their inaction and their unwillingness to solve this.
Something else I heard after the vote was that immigrant rights groups were slow to mobilize against it. What broke down in the information pipeline?
Well, it’s challenging. The groups which were so good at holding us accountable during the Biden administration — about issues, about executive orders, about proposed bills that they didn’t like — were very engaged. I hope they are even more engaged going forward. But this bill was not a surprise. This is a bill that came up last Congress. It was part of the Republican rules package that we voted on last week. No one should have been surprised by it. My hope is that all of those advocates who are deeply concerned about this bill will sound the alarm sooner next time, and share their specific concerns far sooner.
The other huge issue, bigger than this bill, bigger than immigration, bigger than any one particular topic, is the sea of misinformation and disinformation in the cesspool that is social media. It is very difficult to get the truth out in a world where truth matters less and less. All you have to do is look at the replies or comments that accompany any legislator who expresses concern about these bills. The attacks are gratuitous, they are threatening, they are hateful, and that is the world that legislating exists in now. I will tell you: A number of my colleagues told me how exhausting it is to get the truth out in a world where truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
Something I’ve heard from critics of the bill, or the Trump agenda, is that Trump will enact policies so callous that the thermostat might change — it might be a repeat of 2017 and 2018. Do you buy that?
This may sound very cynical, but I feel like Americans are becoming more numb to injustice, inhumanity and tragedy. And I am really concerned that, as horrible as things could potentially get, that the American public is at a place where it will only matter if it happens to them. I look at the mass shootings. You would think after the first or the second mass shooting, that the American voter would say: Enough! You look at climate change, look at what’s happening in California, look at what happened in North Carolina, and what happens in Florida. You’d think after the umpteenth disaster, the American voter would wake up and demand action on climate. I am just really concerned that, as a society, Americans have become numb.
If I can ask a bigger picture question: The premise of “angel moms,” of deporting people accused of crimes, is that any crime committed by an undocumented immigrant never would have happened if they’d been kept out of the country. How would you answer that? Who, apart from people born in America, deserves to be here?
I mean, first and foremost, every single one of us, unless you are a Native American, is a descendant of immigrants. That’s why the H-1B debate was so instructive, right? There was no nuance. Not only did poor brown and Black migrants not deserve to be here, in their view, but even highly skilled, highly educated immigrants didn’t deserve to be here. They want zero immigration. That is a recipe for essentially making America one of the least competitive nations on the globe.