State Representative Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, has pre-filed the Laken Riley Act for the 2025 Legislative Session — a new bill that looks to expand the jurisdiction of local police allowing them to arrest individuals based on immigration status.
The bill is named for Laken Riley, the victim of a high-profile kidnapping and murder in Georgia that occurred earlier this year. Police allege that the suspect in the case, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is an undocumented immigrant.
Riley’s death has become a popular rallying cry for Republicans looking to attack Democrats over “weak” immigration policy. Riley’s father Jason has denounced the use of his daughter’s legacy as a tool for exacerbating political tensions saying, “I’d rather her not be such a political, how you say — it started a storm in our country and it’s incited a lot of people.”
Yarbrough’s colleague, State Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport, spoke in support of the bill saying, “[police] do need this tool of authorization when they encounter a person where; during an investigation, they have reason to believe that, in addition to whatever they’re looking at, they’re in the country illegally.”
At the same time, Bolton acknowledged the potential dangers associated with the bill, specifically its potential to increase instances of racial profiling by police.
“That’s what I don’t want it to become. I don’t want officers coming in, deciding they can just stop everybody that looks like they’re a foreign national, make them produce identification based on reasonable suspicion,” Bolton said.
However, that’s exactly what critics of the bill — like Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice — say will happen.
“It creates a lot of fear, and a lack of trust between communities and law enforcement,” said Hamilton. “I mean, the biggest problem with this legislation is it allows local law enforcement to racially profile people and decide if they think someone’s undocumented and ask them about their status.”
The Laken Riley Act is expected to leave the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee and reach the State House floor sometime early in the 2025 session.
