Democratic lawmaker regrets voting for Laken Riley Act, says Trump admin terrorizing legal migrants

Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., on Thursday said that she regretted voting for the Laken Riley Act earlier this year.

The congresswoman made the statement during a CNN town hall, telling anchor Kaitlan Collins that though she once supported the bill, she came to regret it after seeing immigrants being demonized by the Trump administration.

"As I've thought about it over the last couple of months, I probably would have voted differently. It's a vote that I regret," Hayes said. 

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President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law in January. The new law requires federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants charged or found guilty of theft-related crimes, as well as those accused of assaulting a police officer. It also would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.

The law was named for Laken Riley, a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia's campus. 

The law’s liberal critics say it undermines illegal immigrants’ "access to basic due process." The American Immigration Council put out a statement in January, which read, "Under this law, they would be placed in indefinite detention if accused — not convicted — of low-level crimes like shoplifting. That could include children who are mistakenly arrested and accused of crimes they did not commit."

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Collins asked Hayes about her support for the law as well as the law’s alleged threat to due process. The lawmaker responded that she’s concerned about legal migrants who are suffering because of it, and noted she only voted for it because of its protection for police officers.

"I understand how immigrants across this country, who are here legally and have followed the law, are being terrorized right now because they are unsure of what happens next," she said. "I voted for that piece of legislation because of a very specific provision, and it was if it caused injury or death to a police officer, which was one small piece of it."

Hayes mentioned Collins’ point about due process concerns, saying they'd caused her to regret supporting it alongside the 47 other Democratic representatives who voted for it in Congress. 

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She added that she was more comfortable with the law in the beginning, as she thought the Trump administration would cooperate with Democratic lawmakers on immigration reform. However, she said she doubts that now.

"But coming into this Congress, I trusted that this administration… if they wanted to have border security, they wanted to work with Democrats, that we could actually move forward," Hayes stated. "I’m not really sure of that, because I’ve seen the rhetoric that has come out and the attacks that have been targeted towards immigrants. So, I’m very cautious and careful when I’m negotiating my votes moving forward."