Signed into law January 29, 2025, the Laken Riley Act mandates the detention of non-citizens arrested for shoplifting or theft — no conviction required, no bond hearing, no judicial review. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Before this law, ICE could detain non-citizens who had been convicted of serious crimes. The Laken Riley Act dramatically expanded that — now a simple arrest for shoplifting, theft, burglary, or larceny triggers mandatory detention, with no ability for a judge to review whether detention is actually warranted.
Any non-citizen who is charged with, arrested for, or accused of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting — regardless of whether charges are ever filed, whether there is evidence of guilt, or whether an immigration judge believes the person poses any threat whatsoever. No bond hearing. No judicial review. No exceptions.
The law also strips immigration judges of the discretion they previously had to evaluate individual circumstances. As Boston University immigration law professor Sarah Sherman-Stokes put it: the law "strips judges of the ability to exercise discretion" and "doesn't solve the problem of that horrific crime — it only expands the net."
He was not a danger to anyone. He had no criminal record. He was 18 years old — barely an adult — and had come to the United States as a child victim of abuse, under a legal immigration status that Congress created specifically to protect young people like him. The US immigration system had already looked at his case and said: you deserve protection.
Then, because of an unproven shoplifting accusation that never resulted in formal charges, the same government that granted him protection locked him in an immigration detention facility for sixty days — with no hearing, no judge, no opportunity to explain himself.
"It is unthinkable to imprison someone in the United States without due process based solely on unproven accusations. Our client is an 18-year-old with no criminal record. He has a special form of immigration status designed to protect young people who are victims of abuse, abandonment, and neglect. Yet ICE locked him up for two months without any possibility of release."
— Jessie Rossman, Legal Director, ACLU of MassachusettsThe ACLU of Massachusetts, the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and the Boston College Law School Immigration Clinic filed an emergency habeas petition on his behalf. In what appears to be the first federal court ruling on mandatory detention under the Laken Riley Act, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that his detention violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process — ordering the government to provide a bond hearing or release him.
Judge Talwani found that the government violated his constitutional rights with "no process as to his arrest or his detention." The court also noted that individuals with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status — children who came here as abuse survivors — are not automatically exempt from this law. Meaning it can happen again, to someone else, tomorrow.
The law applies to anyone classified as "unlawfully present" — a legal term far broader than most people assume. It includes millions of people in a wide range of circumstances.
Brought to the US as children — average age of arrival: 7 years old. Average age today: 31. They've lived here for 18+ years, passed background checks, work legally, pay taxes — yet are classified as unlawfully present. Born in 169 countries.
People who arrived legally at ports of entry fleeing war, persecution, or violence — and asked for protection as the law allows. Their cases are in the system but unresolved. Average wait time: 4 years. Detained under this law before their case is even heard.
Arrived legally on student, work, or tourist visas. Visa expired while an adjustment-of-status or green card application is being processed — a process that can take years. Technically "unlawfully present" during the administrative wait.
Children — now young adults — recognized by US courts as survivors of abuse, abandonment, or neglect in their home countries. Granted a legal pathway to permanent residence by Congress specifically to protect them. Still swept up under this law.
Top countries of origin — DACA recipients (Sept 2025)
Top countries of origin — asylum grants (FY 2023)
Legal experts note that detention itself compounds the injustice: people held in ICE facilities — often located far from courts and legal aid organizations — are far less likely to be represented by counsel and far more likely to give up their immigration claims entirely, even valid ones.
Rep. April McClain Delaney — representing Maryland's 6th Congressional District, which includes some of the most racially and ethnically diverse communities in the state, including Germantown, Gaithersburg, and Rockville — was the only Democrat in the entire Maryland congressional delegation to vote for the Laken Riley Act. Every other Maryland Democrat voted no.
Maryland's 6th District is home to large Latino, South Asian, East Asian, and African immigrant communities — many of whom are directly affected by this law. Montgomery County, which the district partially covers, has one of the highest concentrations of DACA recipients and asylum seekers in the mid-Atlantic region.
The vote came just days after McClain Delaney was sworn in as a freshman congressmember. A federal court has since ruled the law unconstitutional in application.