In the first piece of legislation approved in his second term as US president, Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act which would give federal authorities the power to deport undocumented immigrants who have been accused of crimes.
Last Wednesday, Trump announced in a ceremony at the White House that his administration would send the “worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” to a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — calling it “a tough place to get out of.”
The Trump administration has declined to say whether women and children will be held there.
Under the new law, federal officials are required to detain any immigrant arrested or charged with crimes such as theft or assaulting a police officer. Federal officials must also detain immigrants who are arrested or charged with offences that injure or kill someone.
Trump vowed to increase deportations and work to make sure the deported individuals do not return to the US.
“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send ’em out to Guantanamo,” he said, adding that he would instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to provide additional detention space for a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.
The act was passed in the newly Republican-controlled Congress with a handful of Democratic support, though many critics are saying it eliminates due process for many immigrants, including those who have been living and working legally in the US for many years.
Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said the law fails to improve safety or fix the immigration system.
“Under the guise of preventing violence, the bill forces immigration officers to indefinitely detain and deport non-citizens who pose no public safety risk, without access to basic due process,” Gupta said.
“The bill also gives state attorneys general unprecedented power over immigration policy. The bill strips people of their basic rights and upends how the U.S. government enforces immigration law.”
Head of the US Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Trump’s administration would pursue funding through spending bills at Congress.
Will women and children be held at Guantanamo Bay?
On Sunday, Noem was asked repeatedly on NBC News whether women, children and families would be included among those held at the detention centre.
Noem declined to directly answer the question, instead saying the federal government would use the available facilities under the law.
“We’re going to use the facilities that we have,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press program. “We have other detention facilities, other places in the country. So, we will utilise what we have according to what’s appropriate for the individuals.”
“The plan is to have a process that we follow that’s laid out in law and, make sure that we’re dealing with these individuals appropriately according to what the state and what the national lawsuit or law directs. So we will work with Congress to make sure that we’re addressing our legal immigration laws and using Guantanamo Bay appropriately.”
Meanwhile, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel described Trump’s first legislation as “an act of brutality.”
“In act act of brutality, the new government of the US has announced it will incarcerate, at the naval base at Guantanamo, located in illegally occupied Cuban territory, thousands of forcibly expulsed migrants, who will be located near known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” he wrote on X.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also publicly criticised the Act, writing on X: “The U.S. government’s decision to imprison migrants at the Guantanamo Naval Base, in an enclave where it created torture and indefinite detention centers, shows contempt for the human condition and international law.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) believes the law may lead to individuals being “mandatorily locked up — potentially for years — because at some point in their lives, perhaps decades ago, they were accused of nonviolent offences.”
“This is an extreme and reactive bill that will authorize the largest expansion of mandatory detention we have seen in decades, sweeping in children, DREAMers, parents of U.S. citizen children, and other longtime members of their communities who even ICE thinks should not be detained,” said Sarah Mehta, senior border policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This legislation offers no solutions to improve our immigration system, and we thank the senators who stood up for immigrant communities and due process and voted against this harmful, expensive bill — a bill that will not make us safer.”
According to Politico, Trump’s first executive order has shocked the Pentagon, leaving officials “flatfooted” and rushing to come up with a plan to house up to 30,000 people.
The name of the Act
The executive order, named the Laken Riley Act, was named in tribute of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed by in February 2024 by Jose Antonio Ibarra. Ibarra was a Venezuelan national who was in the US illegally, and was sentenced to life without parole late last year after he was found guilty of the murder.
During the announcement ceremony last week, Trump described Riley as “a light of warmth and kindness.”
“It’s a tremendous tribute to your daughter what’s taking place today, that’s all I can say. It’s so sad we have to be doing it.”
Riley’s parents and sister were also present at the ceremony. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, thanked Trump, describing him as “a man of his word” and that “he said he would secure our borders and he would never forget about Laken and he hasn’t.”