U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar speaks during a 2022 appearance in South Texas’ Zapata County. Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose District 28 covers part of San Antonio, was one of 48 Democrats who voted for a GOP-led bill that would make it easier to detain and deport undocumented immigrants for nonviolent crimes.

If the bill, dubbed the Laken Riley Act, passes in the Senate and gets signed into law, it would require authorities to detain undocumented immigrants for theft-related crimes such as shoplifting.

Activist groups have denounced the legislation as a rubber stamp on increased racial profiling and an effort to ramp up deportations.

“The bill is a draconian piece of legislation that undermines America’s commitment to human rights, criminalizes the most vulnerable, and dismantles critical asylum protections,” the Haitian Bridge Alliance said in an emailed statement.

The Laken Riley Act is named after a Georgia nursing student who was kidnapped and murdered last year by undocumented Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra while out for a jog.

The news story became a focal point of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and a GOP talking point critical of Biden’s border policies. Republicans seized on the fact that Ibarra had previously been cited for shoplifting, and claimed that had he been deported for the infraction Riley would still be alive.

The Laken Riley Act was the first bill to pass the new GOP-controlled House before it heads to the Senate on Friday. Only seven more Democrats are needed to support the bill there and avoid a filibuster. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman is a co-sponsor of the Senate legislation.

The Current reached out to the office of Henry Cuellar for an explanation of his “yes” vote but didn’t receive a response by press time.

“Cuellar’s embrace of legislation that uses particular instances of violence to widen the dragnet against whole communities is shameful,” said San Antonio community organizer Alex Birnel. “This bill adds to an already racist anti-immigrant presumption that for this group, petty crime inevitably leads to violent crime. It’s a position that speaks to Democrats’ total lack of imagination to advance alternative immigration policy beyond an embrace of right wing punitive xenophobia.”

This ‘yes’ vote follows Cuellar’s pattern of supporting Republican-sponsored legislation.

In November, Cuellar also joined Republicans in supporting the “nonprofit killer” bill H.R. 9495, which would enable the Trump administration to take away the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it accuses of supporting terrorism. Critics argued that the bill would have a chilling effect on dissent and could be weaponized under the Trump regime to silence opposition groups.

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This article appears in Jan 8-21, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.