It may have seemed a logical vote at the time for Rep. Angie Craig, who early last year supported a bill named after slain nursing student Laken Riley that pressed the Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport illegal immigrants who commit even relatively minor crimes, such as shoplifting.
Now, 18 months later and seeking the Democratic nomination for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat, Ms. Craig cannot stop apologizing.
That included a mea culpa to the state’s largest newspaper in March, saying, “I regret my vote.”
Her chief rival in the primary, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, is determined to make Ms. Craig feel that regret. She regularly points to the get-tough stance as proof that Ms. Craig is wrong for a state where two U.S. citizens were killed in confrontations linked to President Trump’s immigration policies.
Larry Jacobs, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, said the debate over immigration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s arrests and deportations has emerged as the major dividing line in the Democratic primary race.
“Flanagan’s vociferous opposition to ICE and Trump’s immigration policy is the anchor of her progressive campaign and drive to boost turnout,” Mr. Jacobs said. “Craig has retracted her vote for the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s policy while still holding a more pragmatic stance on immigration that aligns with her appeal to moderates.”
The issue is also playing out elsewhere.
In Maine, Sen. Susan M. Collins, a Republican, is fending off protests and claims that she enabled overly aggressive enforcement in the state. The intensity grew last month after a man was fatally shot in a traffic stop confrontation with ICE.
In Minnesota, however, the fight is between Democrats in a primary where left-wing activists are likely to dominate.
The Aug. 11 primary could be an early test run for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, where some hopefuls joined Ms. Craig in backing the Laken Riley Act last year.
Among them were Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, and Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona. Mr. Gallego even co-sponsored the bill, saying Democrats needed to improve border security.
In her March op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune, Ms. Craig highlighted that the four senators — “leaders I deeply respect” — also voted for the bill.
In June, Rep. April McClain Delaney, who also voted for the legislation just days into her freshman term, survived a primary challenge by former Rep. David Trone, who said she should have known better.
In Massachusetts, Patrick Roath is making an issue out of Rep. Stephen Lynch’s vote for the legislation.
Riley was killed in 2024 by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was caught and released under President Biden’s lenient border policies.
The Venezuelan man quickly amassed a criminal record, but ICE did not arrest him, allowing him to remain free in the community and kill Riley.
Her death became a focal point in the immigration debate and spawned the law that now bears her name.
The law pushes ICE to deport migrants who have relatively minor criminal entanglements. The goal was to intercept them before they committed worse crimes.
The law also allows for the mandatory detention of migrants charged with killing or seriously injuring someone. That provision, known as Sarah’s Law, was named for Sarah Root, slain by an illegal immigrant driving under the influence, who was released on bail, whom ICE did not consider a priority for pickup, and who then absconded for years.
Forty-six House Democrats and 12 Senate Democrats voted for the bill.
Ms. Craig has explained her vote, just days into the second Trump administration, as a way to break with the Biden administration’s “open borders.”
In a recent debate on NPR, she said she quickly realized that “any additional authority to the Trump administration was the wrong decision.”
“I regret it,” she reiterated.
Ms. Flanagan, who said ICE should be ripped apart, said Ms. Craig should have seen the danger in backing Mr. Trump on immigration even before the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two U.S. citizens, in separate confrontations with federal officers in January.
“Donald Trump ran on a mass deportation agenda. It was literally in bright signs behind him at rallies in all caps that said ’mass deportation now,’” Ms. Flanagan said.
She said Ms. Craig’s past support for ICE “should be disqualifying.”
Ms. Craig countered that Ms. Flanagan was focusing on a single vote while offering no broader immigration plan.
“Throughout the course of her entire campaign, [she] has sat on the bleachers, complaining about the one vote I took in eight years,” Ms. Craig said.
In January, on the anniversary of the law, ICE said it had arrested “more than 21,400 illegal aliens with Laken Riley Act crimes.”
Republicans remain steadfastly in support of the law and questioned why Democrats would abandon it.
“Angie Craig’s apology tour is a slap in the face to Laken Riley’s family and every American whose life has been forever changed by violent crimes committed by illegals,” said Hunter Lovell, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. “It’s another reminder that Democrats are willing to put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of the safety and security of American families.”
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