Oppose CORCA: Don't Federalize Shoplifting or Expand DHS Surveillance

Today I’m writing to urge you to Vote NO on H.R. 2853/S. 1404, the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025, and block any effort to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act. CORCA has no national security nexus — it belongs nowhere near the NDAA. Worse, this bill doesn't just target organized retail crime. It lowers the federal prosecution threshold under 18 U.S.C. 2314 and 2315 from $5,000 per incident to an aggregate $5,000 over 12 months, meaning a single person committing multiple small thefts can face federal charges. That's federalizing poverty. Black and Brown Americans — already facing structural economic barriers — would bear the brunt of these prosecutions, sent to federal prisons far from their families with little access to rehabilitation. CORCA also creates a new DHS surveillance center led by an ICE-appointed director — a role Congress never debated — that would funnel retail surveillance data directly into immigration enforcement. ICE already uses facial recognition technology with documented accuracy failures for Black people, Asian people, women, and transgender individuals, and operates a license plate reader network stretching from the southern border to the Midwest. CORCA hands this whole apparatus a new pipeline into everyday consumer activity, and is an overreach with murky intentions. The FBI and DOJ already have the tools to address transnational organized crime. Reject CORCA. Vote NO.