The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that federal authorities have arrested and detained more than 17,500 people it describes as "criminal illegal aliens" under the Laken Riley Act, a law signed earlier this year by president Trump that mandates detention for certain noncitizens accused of specific crimes.
In a statement, DHS said the law requires federal detention of noncitizens accused of offenses including theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, or crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury. The statute is named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed in 2024 by a Venezuelan national who had previously been released after earlier arrests.
DHS said the arrests include more than 1,030 people taken into custody during Operation Angel's Honor, a 14-day nationwide enforcement initiative announced this week. "In honor of Laken Riley, ICE launched Operation Angel's Honor — in the last 2 weeks alone arresting more than 1,000 criminal illegal aliens under the authority of the Laken Riley Act," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement.
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The announcement comes as courts continue to scrutinize how the Trump administration is applying the law. In a Nov. 5 ruling reported by Courthouse News, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ordered the release of a 20-year-old Peruvian asylum seeker detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, finding there was a "complete absence of any reason" for her continued detention.
Liman cited the Laken Riley Act itself, questioning why Congress would have specifically required mandatory detention for certain criminal charges if the government believed it already had authority to detain any noncitizen regardless of criminal conduct. "The government has no answer," Liman wrote.
Other federal judges have reached similar conclusions, ruling that the government's broad interpretation of detention authority would render the statute's criminal conduct provisions meaningless. U.S. District Judges Julia Kobick in Massachusetts and Orelia Merchant in New York have both relied on the act to order detainees released.
Legal challenges to the law are also ongoing. In September, a federal judge in Boston ruled that mandatory detention without a bond hearing under the Laken Riley Act violated due process in at least one case, ordering a bond hearing or release. While the law remains in effect, courts have emphasized that its application must comply with constitutional protections.
The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, the law firm Rubin Pomerleau PC, and Professor Mary Holper of Boston College Law School.
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