Democrats signal openness to Republicans’ Laken Riley Act with key vote
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Bill may pass, led by Republicans, without amendments after Democratic resistance vanishes. A key immigration enforcement measure could be on track for passage thanks to Democrats crossing party lines to support it. The failure of the Democratic Party’s leadership and standard-bearers to present a winning message on immigration reform in 2024 is coming back to bite outgoing President Joe Biden.
![[Freshman Senator Ruben Gallego was one of two Democrats to come out as a co-sponsor of the Laken Riley Act this week.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/09/21/GettyImages-2183917813.jpg)
With days left of his presidency and the fight to define his legacy begun, his allies in Congress are seemingly prepared to compromise with the GOP on a bill that would direct immigration authorities to detain any undocumented person charged with theft.
The legislation, which is named after a woman slain by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant, would represent a major messaging victory for Republicans to ring in the new year were it to be passed. But Americans’ anger over inaction on the issue has given the GOP a political opening, and the bill won dozens of Democratic votes as it passed the House last week.
In the Senate, the bill easily passed a key vote to allow debate to begin next week. Democrats signaled Wednesday that they’d vote for cloture after John Thune, the GOP’s new majority leader, allowed amendments to the bill. The vote was 84-9 in favor.
The debate on amendments could be contentious. However, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday that numerous Democrats are prepared to vote for the bill as is, meaning that a filibuster may not materialize even if all of the Democratic-sponsored amendments fail. Part of that stemmed from the decision of two relative newcomers to the chamber, John Fetterman and Ruben Gallego, to cosponsor the Act before any amendments were announced.
