Congress approves the Laken Riley Act to deport immigrants accused of crimes

The House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would require the detention and deportation of migrants who enter the country without authorization and are accused of certain crimes, making it the first bill to clear the new Congress and go to President Trump’s desk to signature.

The final vote, 263 to 156, capped the opening salvo in a broader Trump-era crackdown on immigration and undocumented migrants that the president has promised, Republicans have championed and a small but growing group of Democrats have begun to embrace. Forty-six House Democrats joined all Republicans in supporting it, a sign of the growing bipartisan consensus around taking a tougher line on those entering the country illegally.

The bill is almost certainly quickly signed by Mr. Trump, who began his second term on Monday, issued a series of executive orders that ramped up his immigration crackdown, cracking down on both legal and illegal entry into the United States.

Wednesday’s measure, titled the Laken Riley Act, is named after a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia who was killed last year by a migrant from Venezuela who crossed into the United States illegally. The man had previously been arrested in a shoplifting case, but was not detained.

The House gave its blessing after the Senate spent last week debating changes to the bill, revealing deep divisions among Democrats over immigration. Some Democrats have moved to the right on the issue after their party’s election loss in November, arguing that they must take basic steps to punish illegalities, though they disagree on some of the details. But others pushed back strongly on the bill, saying it would deprive accused criminals of due process, a fundamental principle of the criminal justice system, and was mostly aimed at demonizing unauthorized immigrants.

The law directs federal officials to detain unauthorized immigrants who are arrested or charged with burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault on a police officer or crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury, expanding the list of charges that would subject migrants for immediate detention and potential deportation.

Republicans boosted the measure as the first of several border bills they hope to revive and pass now that they’ve cemented their governing trifecta. A similar measure passed the House last year but died when the Democratic-led Senate declined to take it up.

The GOP also wants to revive measures to increase deportations, detain asylum seekers outside the United States and strip federal funding from cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

“I promised I would fight with every ounce I had to make sure we protected families across this country, and we did,” said Representative Mike Collins of Georgia, a Republican who wrote the bill and whose district includes Ms. Riley’s hometown of Athens. “There is nothing of any meaningful legislation happening in this town up here until the American people demand it, and by God, they demand that this be passed and we get these criminals out of our country.”

The bill’s swift journey through Congress this month exposed fissures among Democrats over how to position themselves on immigration and signaled the enormous challenge of maintaining unity on a pressing issue that Mr. Trump has made it his signature issue.

“It is so shameful that the first bill of the new Congress will put a target on the backs of millions, millions of our neighbors,” said Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, in a speech against the measure.

Some Democrats, including Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado and Patty Murray of Washington, raised serious concerns about the bill, arguing that it would undermine due process for migrants who had not yet been convicted of crimes. They also said it would waste limited resources that federal immigration enforcement agencies could use to apprehend people who have committed more serious, violent offenses.

Others, including Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the party needs to spell out clearly to voters what is actually in the bills Republicans are forcing them to vote on and unite in opposition.

“These bills that the Republicans are throwing our way are so extreme that we should be able to have unified Democratic opposition but for the sheer volume of lies being pumped out by the President of the United States,” said Mr. Casar to journalists. Wednesday afternoon before the vote. “Trump campaigned on the lie that immigrants are the source of the nation’s problems. We need to fight the flood of lies.”

Some House Democrats on Wednesday called their Republican colleagues hypocritical for supporting the bill, which would deport migrants based on just one charge of assaulting a police officer, immediately after applauding Mr. Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 convicted rioters on January 6, including several convicted of attacking police officers.

“I have been aware that violent criminals have no place in our society, and with President Trump’s anti-law enforcement pardons of violent criminals, I felt it was important to stand with law enforcement,” said Representative Eugene Vindman, a first term Democrat. of Virginia, who opposed the bill when it came up in the House earlier this month, but voted yes on Wednesday.

Mr. Vindman said the language added by the Senate to include violent crime and assault on a police officer as detention offenses was enough to persuade him to switch, although he was concerned about the lack of due process in the bill and its potential cost.

“I voted in favor of this bill to uphold the rule of law, keep our communities safe from violent crime and reinforce that any assault on a police officer is abhorrent,” said Mr. Windman