WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House on Wednesday passed the Laken Riley Act, a strict immigration detention measure named in honor of a 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student who was murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant.
The legislation, aimed at cracking down on people who illegally commit nonviolent crimes like theft in the United States, is expected to be the first bill President Donald Trump signs after returning to the White House this week.
The vote in the House was 263-156, with 46 Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting the measure. The bill passed the Senate 64-35 on Monday, winning 12 Democratic votes. Among them were Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan; Jon Ossoff, of Georgia; Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire; and Mark Warner of Virginia, all running for re-election in 2026.
In November, Jose Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan citizen who was in the United States illegally, was convicted of kidnapping, assaulting and murdering Riley while she was jogging near the university’s campus. from Georgia to Athens. Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump and Republicans pointed out that Ibarra had been cited for shoplifting by a Georgia police department, but that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not issued him a detainer and that he had not been placed in detention.
The Laken Riley Act, authored by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., would require ICE to process and detain undocumented immigrants who are accused, arrested or convicted of committing acts of “burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.”
An earlier version of the bill passed the House by a vote of 264 to 159, with the support of 48 Democrats. The GOP-controlled House passed the bill last year, but it was ignored by the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden never said whether he supported it.
“You now have a willing partner in the Senate who actually wants to confront the real issues facing families, so we don’t have any more Laken Rileys,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters. before the vote.
“There are not more killings of innocent people because of an open border. President Trump has already taken steps to begin reversing this open border,” he added.
The Senate adopted two amendments to add to the list of acts that trigger mandatory detention of illegal immigrants: one from Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, which includes assaulting a police officer, and another from Senator Joni Ernst, Republican from Iowa. , which includes acts causing death or bodily harm to a person.
Passage of the Laken Riley Act comes amid a heated debate among Democrats over how to deal with immigration after their bruising 2024 election defeat — and how to handle plans for mass deportations of Trump.
Pro-immigration activists blasted the bill as a plan to eliminate due process for migrants and upend the system, and some Democrats called it an unfunded mandate that will cost billions. Other Democrats in competitive districts and states backed him, seeking to show support for aggressive immigration enforcement.
The politics of the issue have shifted to the right. Immigration ranked fourth among voters’ concerns in the 2024 election, according to NBC News exit polls, and those Americans voted for Trump over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris by 89%. against 9%. Trump also gained significant ground among Latino voters overall and won directly among Latino men, according to exit polls.
Responding to intra-party divisions on the bill, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, Democrat of California, told reporters: “Members will vote in their districts. Members must balance…their love for this country with the job they do for their constituents. We expect them to do both in the votes they cast.
“The Democratic Caucus believes in a safe and secure border,” Aguilar continued. “We believe in order at the border and a solution to our broken immigration system. We also believe in ensuring the public safety of our communities.”
Democrats opposed to the Laken Riley Act argued that the legislation was too draconian.
“Laken Riley casts a net to handcuff, arrest and deport people who have committed minor crimes. In that sense, it’s not a good thing,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., the new chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. , told NBC News.
“Any discussion that should take place here on the issue of border security, on the issue of immigration,” he said, “should include something about Dreamers and farmworkers and families.”
Laken Riley’s father, Jason Riley, told NBC News in an interview that he was grateful to lawmakers who supported the legislation, which he said “helped change things politically.”
“I think it turned out to be a good thing,” he said Wednesday. He added that he hated that her murder “became a national story” and put the family in the spotlight, but that he understood “why it became so politically charged.”
“We are very happy with the way things have gone,” he said.
