Votes on Laken Riley Act signal Democratic shift on immigration policies

Today’s newsletter highlights:

The late President Jimmy Carter will be remembered in two funeral services today.
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns reveals goals for the legislative session.
Sports betting advocates hope the seventh time is the charm.

Movement on the Republican-backed measure named after a slain Georgia nursing student may be the sharpest indication yet of a post-election shift within the Democratic Party over immigration and border security policies.

A spokesman for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, facing a tough reelection battle in 2026, said Thursday he will back the Laken Riley Act, which would let law enforcement officers detain and possibly deport immigrants who are living in the country illegally and have been accused of theft or burglary.

And U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock told us this morning that he will join at least eight other Democratic-aligned senators who support a procedural vote to advance the bill to a debate, though he stopped short of endorsing the overall measure. It appears there’s enough support to overcome a filibuster.

There were other signs of a shift across Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a potential 2026 candidate for governor, was among seven House Democrats who voted against the measure last year but supported it this week.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Their stances highlight the pressure on Democrats to embrace tougher immigration policies after an election campaign dominated by President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to crack down on border security and mount large scale deportations.

The Democrats could risk angering their base. Some civil and human rights groups have raised concerns about due process and potential widespread implications if the legislation is signed.

But opposing the bill could play into GOP attacks depicting them as soft on immigration. Republicans such as U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Jackson have stepped up the pressure, highlighting the vote as an early dividing line in Ossoff’s quest for another term.

“If there are any two U.S. Senators in our country that should vote ‘Yes’ on the Laken Riley Act, it is Senators Warnock and Ossoff,” said Collins, who authored the bill. “She was their constituent, and she would still be alive today if this legislation had been in place.”

Warnock said he’s voting to begin floor debate on the bill “because I believe the people of Georgia want their lawmakers in Washington to address the issues in this legislation.”

He added that he welcomes a “serious bipartisan conversation about what we need to do to fix our broken immigration system to keep Georgians safe and prevent another senseless tragedy.”

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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

GOOD MORNING. It will be a somber day in Georgia and beyond as the late President Jimmy Carter is remembered with two services, including a formal state funeral this morning at the Washington National Cathedral.

President Joe Biden and four former presidents will attend the ceremony. That includes President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently maligned Carter but yesterday went to the Capitol Rotunda, where the late president was lying in state, to pay his respects.

The eulogy at the memorial will be delivered by Biden, whose relationship with Carter stretches back decades. Biden was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Carter’s presidential bid in 1976, and the Georgian never forgot his loyalty. The last time Biden saw Carter was during his 2021 visit to the former president’s humble home in Plains.

“I bent down — he was in tough shape — to kiss him goodbye, and he asked me to do his eulogy,” Biden told USA Today.

After that, Carter’s casket will return to Plains, where he will be laid to rest beside his wife, Rosalynn, in a private ceremony. The Rev. Tony Lowden, Carter’s personal pastor, will speak.

The AJC has published “An Exemplary Life,” a 24-page special section remembering Carter’s life and legacy. You can buy a copy at our online store and retail outlets in metro Atlanta. Copies are also available in Plains for free.

In honor of our 39th president, here are three things to know:

Carter’s post-presidential life is marked by his push for fair and democratic election results across the globe. But before that, he was the victim of a stolen election himself, the AJC’s Mark Niesse writes.
Most people associate Carter’s Georgia connection with his hometown of Plains and Atlanta, home of the Carter Center. But the late president also had a rustic mountain cabin near Ellijay where he sought refuge in the solitude of the forest, Greg Bluestein reports.
Long before a film tax credit transformed Georgia into one of the country’s largest moviemaking destinations, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter laid the groundwork for the state’s multibillion-dollar film industry, the AJC’s Savannah Sicurella reports.

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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

WHAT HE SAID. Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns spoke with reporters on Wednesday to preview the legislative session, which starts on Monday. His comments were broad, so we’ll have to wait until legislation hits the hopper to dig into the details.

A big takeaway was that Burns said a state agency managing the publicly funded private education subsidy for Georgia’s K-12 students went too far by making entire school districts eligible for them, the AJC’s Michelle Baruchman reported.

Here’s a roundup of what else Burns had to say:

Tax cuts. “Guess what? We’re going to look at that again.”
Child literacy. “We’re ready to work with the Senate, with the governor’s office, to implement additional literacy initiatives that will ensure that Georgia moves forward.”
Transgender sports. “The girls will participate against girls and compete against girls and boys will participate against boys. That’s how it should be and I believe you will see that we will codify legislation that will protect that area.”
Medical workforce. “It will be an investment on the part of the state to ensure that those residency programs are not only in the major cities, but there are opportunities in smaller cities and even in rural communities.”
IVF. “We’ll go ahead and codify protections for IVF. … We know how important that is to families.”
Prison safety. “We also believe that you need to be protected when you go to prison when you are a prisoner. It needs to be a place where you are not threatened.”
Cameras in school zones. “We want to make sure that any revenue that is created by school zone cameras are applied to school safety. We think that is a reasonable request.”
Energy use. “We are going to develop a statewide resource management plan. … We want to go back and take a look at how we use energy in this state.”

Tune in to “Politically Georgia” on Friday for an in-depth interview with Burns on those topics and plenty more.

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Credit: AJC file photo

SAVE THE DAM. One of President Joe Biden’s final acts in office was to save an 88-year-old dam along the Savannah River near Augusta.

The New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam opened in 1937, part of a plan to make it possible for ships to travel between Augusta and the Savannah port.

The lock system hasn’t worked for nearly 50 years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted to demolish the structure and replace it with a smaller dam made of rocks, which would have been safer for fish. But that would have left less water in the river, which would mean less lucrative development and recreational opportunities along its banks.

The people of Augusta and North Augusta didn’t like that, and decades of litigation ensued. Enter the Water Resources Development Act, which Biden signed into law over the weekend. Tucked among its 624 pages (page 394 to be exact) was language directing a “full repair of the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam structure.”

“Any option that resulted in a significant drop in the water level was a non-starter for local businesses, homeowners, and families,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta. “This was no small feat, but I could not be prouder that we persevered.”

Of course, not everyone was happy about it. Tonya Bonitatibus, executive director for Savannah Riverkeeper, called it a good outcome “if you are rich enough to own a dock on the river.”

“At the end of the day, this is not an outcome that I like,” she said. “But as an organization, we also realize this is one piece of an extremely complex project that will have a lot of ramifications for years to come.”

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Credit: Adam Beam/AJC

PLAY NICE. A funny thing happened when a group of advocates and lawmakers got together on Wednesday to talk about how to keep kids safe in school: they hardly mentioned guns.

Instead, most of the conversation focused on social media use and how various state agencies don’t talk to each other, causing miscommunications that can lead to violence and other issues in schools.

Carolyn Hugley, the newly elected leader of Georgia House Democrats, shared a story from her county about a school district enrolling a new student who was in foster care without having access to the child’s records. She said the child ended up attacking and seriously injuring a teacher. Only after the fact did school officials learn of the student’s history of mental health issues.

“When we don’t have this information, we’re putting our teachers, our staff and children at risk,” she said. “That is something that is very critical for us to try and figure out.”

State Rep. Chris Erwin of Homer, the Republican chair of the House Education Committee, appeared to agree.

“I think that will be a very good topic for us this session,” he said.

We asked Hugley about it after the panel, and she said she planned to follow up with Erwin “to see if they’re serious.”

Oh, and just to clarify, Hugley was one of the few on the panel who did mention guns, saying “we need to be real and do something about gun safety.”

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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

HERE WE GO AGAIN. State Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, says he will introduce a constitutional amendment this year to legalize sports betting in Georgia. It will be the seventh year in a row lawmakers have debated the issue.

The AJC’s Caleb Groves wrote about why supporters think this is the year it will happen.

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Credit: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” the hosts discuss the scene in Washington on Wednesday, where the late President Jimmy Carter has been lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. They also preview the day ahead for Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. That special episode is already in your podcast feed.

Be sure to download the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297.

On Wednesday’s show, hosts Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy reported live from Washington.

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Credit: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

TODAY IN WASHINGTON:

President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy at President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
The U.S. Senate will vote on whether to advance the Laken Riley Act.
The House has scheduled a vote on legislation that would sanction the International Criminal Court if it continues accusing Israeli leaders of war crimes in Gaza.

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AS ALWAYS, send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.

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