The Republican-led US Congress delivered President Donald Trump an early victory in his promised crackdown on illegal immigration Wednesday as lawmakers green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
The Laken Riley Act — which mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes — is named for a 22-year-old student murdered by a Venezuelan man with no papers who was wanted for shoplifting.
“Criminal illegal aliens must be detained, deported, and NEVER allowed back into our country,” Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said on X.
“The American people demand and deserve safety and security.”
The law passed the upper chamber in a comfortable 64-35 vote earlier this week after sailing through the House of Representatives, with Republicans keen to highlight what they described as weak border security policies from Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
But the newly inaugurated Senate — which flipped from Democratic to Republican control after November’s election — added a tweak that expands mandatory detention to “crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.”
That meant it had to go back to the House for one last vote but it cleared that hurdle easily as 46 Democrats joined the Republicans, and it will now be the first piece of legislation Trump signs into law.
The 78-year-old has promised to crack down on illegal border crossings and carry out mass deportations. He has named Tom Homan, a veteran hardline immigration official, as his border chief.
The Republican president repeatedly spotlighted Laken Riley’s case during his election campaign as he railed against undocumented migrants, blaming them for “poisoning the blood” of the country.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was convicted of her murder after she was found dead in a wooded area at the University of Georgia in Athens.
“We will no longer prioritize dangerous criminal illegal aliens over the lives of Americans,” Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa said in a statement.
“The era of open borders and lawless chaos is over. Republicans are securing the border and putting the safety and well-being of US citizens first.”
Democrats complained, however, that it would cost $83 billion to implement the new law in the first three years — more than the Homeland Security Department’s annual budget — and flies in the face of due process.
New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a speech on the House floor that detaining people accused, but not convicted, of a crime would be a “fundamental suspension of a core American value.”
And she accused Republicans of hypocrisy on law and order for failing to oppose Trump’s pardon of hundreds of violent criminals who stormed the Capitol in 2021 — “unleashing people who attacked police officers here on this Capitol.”