Central Florida Dem Rep. Darren Soto on why he can’t support the Laken Riley Act

A GOP-authored immigration bill that would force the imprisonment of many undocumented immigrants accused of minor crimes returns for a vote to the U.S. House this week after 12 Senate Democrats voted to approve the measure on Monday.
The Laken Riley Act is named after a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant in Georgia last year. While existing law requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants only when they are accused of serious crimes like murder, rape, domestic violence, and some drug offenses, the new proposal would require detention for smaller crimes such as shoplifting, burglary, larceny, and theft.
It would also give state attorneys general broad discretion to challenge federal immigration policy if enacted into law.
While the measure has received some bipartisan support so far in both chambers of Congress, Central Florida Democratic Rep Darren Soto says the measure needs to be amended to exempt “dreamers” and those on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) before he can get behind it.
“We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of family members of U.S. citizens in Florida who could simply be falsely accused and then deported,” he told the Phoenix during a phone conversation Tuesday.
“That also violates the Fifth Amendment of due process. It’s important for people to understand that it’s already the law of the land that if an immigrant is convicted of a crime that they can be deported and so as we’re talking about trying to go over that line it becomes a constitutional problem, and a problem of fairness,” he said.
“Anybody could falsely accuse someone and then your loved ones, who are here legally as dreamers under the DACA program, or millions of TPS recipients, they could be deported. So, we’re a nation of laws and constitutional rights, and so I have a big problem with people merely being accused and deported.”
(DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young immigrants who grew up in the U.S. to seek temporary protection from deportation and have the ability to work. TPS applies to nationals of specifically designated countries that are confronting an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions).
Split the Democrats
The bill — and likely other measures designed to crack down on illegal immigration — has the potential to fracture the Democratic Party. Newly elected Arizona U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego is one of those Democrats who support the measure, telling Politico there “has been this misunderstanding about where Latinos are when it comes to border and border security.”
Gallego added, “I’m here to bring some more real truth about what people are thinking … and so people here and senators here aren’t necessarily reliant on these immigration groups that are, I think, a lot of times, largely out of touch with where your average Latino is.”
“I’m happy to support border security bills and Ruben is one of my closest friends up here,” said Soto, the first U.S. representative of Puerto Rican descent elected from Florida, when asked about Gallego’s comments.
“We already voted for authorizing tens of thousands of new border agents in the last budget,” he said.
“And we’re going to continue to work on technology to make sure that we have border awareness. I think the key is that we have to see how dreamers and TPS recipients shake out. We have a huge amount of those [people] in our area, especially Venezuelans with TPS as well as Haitians. So, we have different interests, right? But I agree with the senator that we need to continue to work together on border awareness and border security. He and I may just have a disagreement with what we do with folks who are merely accused [of a crime].”
The bill is opposed by groups such as the ACLU, which called on members of the Senate last week to oppose the measure “because it would require the government to detain people who have not been convicted or even charged with a crime.”
DeSantis attacks
On X last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chided Soto and the other five members of the Florida Democratic Congressional delegation who voted against the Laken Riley Act, saying that “after enduring historic drubbings at the polls and bleeding record numbers of registered voters, FL Democrats are taking a stand … in favor of illegal aliens who commit criminal offenses against Americans.”
Soto insists he’s worried that the actions on illegal immigration that both the governor and President Trump intend to enact in the next few weeks and months could cause devastating harm to Florida’s economy.
“I think people need to understand the bigger picture right now,” said Soto, who represents all of Osceola and parts of Orange and Polk counties in Congress.
“Inflation’s low,” he added. “Right now, growth is high. Right now, unemployment is low and we have a strong economy. If they do mass deportations and jack up tariffs, it could collapse the Florida economy. A lot of folks in my area who did vote for Trump did so because of the increase in costs and they thought he was bluffing on doing these aggressive immigration matters. But if you really kick that up and you start kicking up inflation again, which is right now below 3%, that is really what is going to hurt your average Floridian and going to change things really quickly.”
Soto does believe that there are a variety of issues he can work with Trump on, such as infrastructure, the CHIPS & Science Act, border security, and the federal budget.
But he said the biggest battle lines for him will be to stop the promised mass deportations and tariffs from the new administration that he fears will ruin the state’s economy. He’s also concerned the Trump administration might try to stop the federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, which recent federal data indicate more than 4.6 million Floridians are enrolled in, the most in the nation.
Jan. 6 pardons
The Democrat absolutely draws the line when it comes to the new president’s sweeping pardons on Monday night of approximately 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including rioters who attacked law enforcement officers.
“On Day One, Trump sided with criminals over law enforcement,” he said. “I was in the Capitol on Jan. 6. Capitol Police saved my life against a violent insurrection. And if he’s trying to make a case that he’s ‘Mr. Law & Order,’ he abundantly failed in that.”
Soto said he opposed President Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, but supports Biden’s pardons for Americans like Dr. Anthony Fauci. “He had to do what he had to do as a practical matter for America’s doctor,” he said. “For someone who has saved millions of lives and has been unfairly politicized by the right.”
