Laken Riley Act passes US House, sending anti-immigrant bill to Trump
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Forty-six Democrats joined Republicans to further bill requiring detention of undocumented immigrants for theft. The US House on Wednesday gave final passage to a bill requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, sending the proposal to Donald Trump’s desk and giving the new president his first legislative victory as he presses his hardline immigration agenda on multiple fronts.
The House vote was 263 to 158, with 46 Democrats joining every present Republican in supporting the Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan national who was in the US unlawfully. The House vote came two days after the US Senate passed the legislation in a vote of 64 to 35, with a dozen Democratic members backing the bill.
Under the bill, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would be required to detain undocumented immigrants charged with crimes such as “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting”. It would also allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believed their states had been harmed by its failure to enforce immigration laws.
The notable Democratic support for the bill underscores how the party is feeling pressure to move to the right on immigration after Republicans narrowly won the White House and both chambers of Congress in November. But progressives have expressed outrage over the party’s perceived acquiescence to Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
“Spineless. That’s the only word for the 10 Senate Democrats who handed Maga Republicans a gift they didn’t deserve,” Sarah Dohl, chief campaigns officer of the progressive group Indivisible, said last week, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) slogan.
