Note: A shorter version of this piece was originally published in the Chicago Sun Times. 

“We must rein in ICE abuses before another life is lost,” said Senator Dick Durbin last week after two fathers, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, were shot and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Mr. Araujo was a highly respected member of his community for more than three decades. Mr. Guerrero had a three-year-old daughter. Since then, another man was killed in Miami as he ran from ICE.  

Most voters agree with Senator Durbin’s sentiment that ICE is out of control, and so do many of his colleagues in Congress. Not a single Democrat voted to hand more funds to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in June. So it is alarming that Senator Durbin has thrown his weight behind another bill, the Combating Organized Retail Theft Act or “CORCA,” which would empower DHS and ICE to collect data on American shoppers and expand the reach of immigration enforcement into our communities.   

CORCA purports to address a legitimate concern—organized retail theft—but does nothing to actually prevent or reduce shoplifting or cargo theft. Instead, tucked into the bill is a dangerous provision that would dramatically expand DHS’s role in domestic law enforcement, allowing the agency to collect, analyze, and share the personal data of people in the United States with few meaningful civil liberties safeguards, no adequate oversight, and no accountability mechanisms.  

Who is behind the push to pass this terrible legislation? The retail industry has lobbied heavily in support of this bill, winning bipartisan support from members of Congress who are afraid of being painted as “soft” on crime. However, after learning about the expansion of ICE’s power in this bill, 10 Democratic House co-sponsors ultimately decided not to vote in favor of the legislation. Now, the bill is being readied for debate in the U.S. Senate. Knowing that the bill is indefensible on its merits, the retail lobby is going into overdrive to sneak it into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a must-pass legislative package. The lobby has published op-eds across the country attempting to pressure New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who has long been opposed to CORCA, as well as Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed.  

Senator Durbin has historically been a lead sponsor of CORCA and has approved moving it quickly and without debate on the NDAA. We call on him, and other Democratic senators, to reject this bill and continue to lead in the fight to rein in ICE. We understand senators feel pressure to address organized retail theft—but there are much better policy solutions, such as strengthening regulations and accountability for online resale platforms and making it harder to resell stolen goods.  

Our fear is that Senate Democrats may not know the dangers lurking under the hood of CORCA, and they may not realize how unpopular this bill is with their constituents.  

A new YouGov poll commissioned by Vera Action found that opposition to including CORCA in the NDAA is broad, cutting across partisan and demographic lines. Just over eight in 10 respondents say Congress should vote on each bill separately. This includes 92 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of Republicans.  

The bill itself isn’t popular either. Seventy percent of voters, including 62 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans, want local law enforcement to be most responsible for curbing organized retail theft. They also want stronger regulations and accountability for online resellers, compared to only 17 percent of respondents who want CORCA’s approach of expanding ICE’s role to address the problem. 

A broad coalition of more than 130 civil rights, criminal justice reform, and immigration groups—including the NAACP, ACLU, and others—have urged Democrats to remove this dangerous amendment from the NDAA, withdraw all support for CORCA, and instead focus on real solutions to keep Americans safe. Grassroots mobilization efforts are underway, calling on Senators to reject CORCA. And influencers are spreading the message as well.  

Senator Durbin has been a vocal opponent of expanding immigration enforcement, including voting against the Laken Riley Act, which increased ICE’s detention authority and which many Senators have come to regret supporting. As civil rights leaders, we urge him now to call for CORCA to be debated on its own merits and to vote no.