(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate is set to vote on the Laken Riley Act, a bill that empowers law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants accused of crimes, after the House passed it 264-159 on Tuesday.
The legislation would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain for deportation any migrant residing illegally in the U.S. who additionally “is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense.”
The bill would also allow states to sue federal officials who violate or refuse to enforce immigration law.
All 216 Republicans who voted supported the legislation, while 48 Democrats joined them and the remaining 159 Democrats who voted opposed it.
Originally rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate in the 118th Congress, sponsor Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., reintroduced it as a closed-rule bill attached to the recently adopted 119th House rules package.
The Laken Riley Act is named after a University of Georgia nursing student murdered in February 2024 by Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra, who had a prior record of shoplifting in the U.S. but was released from law enforcement custody before committing the murder.
U.S. immigration law already requires that migrants illegally entering and residing in the United States be deported, even if they are not charged with additional crimes, but ICE cannot always enforce it under the Biden administration’s parole and sanctuary policies.
“Right now, ICE is unable to detain and deport these illegal criminals who commit these minor-level crimes. But the Laken Riley Act will fix this, and give ICE and our local law enforcement the tools to get these criminals out of our country and make our communities safer,” Collins said on the House floor prior to the vote. “We’ve got to make sure that this doesn’t ever happen again.”
But some Democratic lawmakers slammed the bill, calling it an “empty and opportunistic measure” by Republicans that could harm DACA migrants who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, treating them the same way as hardened criminals.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., called the Laken Riley Act a “sloppy and political product” that also violates due process laws by applying mandatory detention statutes on people who are only charged with, not convicted of, committing crimes.
“This [bill] allows us to get up and demonize immigrants without doing anything to fix the immigration system, and to act tough without actually making America safer or solving any of the problems within the immigration laws,” Raskin said.
Raskin also accused Republicans of turning immigration into a political talking point rather than supporting effective measures, pointing to a bipartisan border deal in February that Senate Republicans and some Democrats rejected.
But Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Democrats’ reluctance to support the bill showcases their own political inconsistency.
“The Democrats have told us for four years that their refusal to enforce our immigration laws is because they’re prioritizing more dangerous offenders,” he said. “That is precisely what this bill does – it prioritizes dangerous offenders – and yet the Democrats are still opposing it.”
