Congress passes immigration crackdown in early victory for Trump

The US Congress has passed a bill requiring undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.

The bill, named after Laken Riley — a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man — passed the House of Representatives a day after it was approved by the Senate.

The measure crossed the House by a vote of 263 to 156. Forty-six Democrats defied their party leadership and crossed the political aisle to support the Republican measure. In the Senate, 12 Democrats gave their support to the bill.

It now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law — an early legislative victory for his fledgling administration on a bill named after a woman he often invoked during his campaign.

Ms Riley, 22, was found dead in February 2024 in a wooded area on the University of Georgia campus after she failed to return from her morning run.

The migrant convicted of murdering her had been arrested twice, in New York and in Georgia, months before the killing, but was released ahead of trial.

The Laken Riley Act was approved by the Republican House last year, but was not taken up at the time in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

It passed with bipartisan support Wednesday just days after the Senate’s balance of power shifted to Republican control.

The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrants if they are accused of certain crimes, including theft, shoplifting, burglary, assault on law enforcement or any crime that results in the death “or serious bodily injury of another person.”

It also authorizes state attorneys general to sue the federal government if their residents feel they have been harmed by national immigration policies.

The bill does not bring new funding for immigration control measures, leading to criticism from Democrats that it will be too expensive to fully implement.

Liberal Democrats criticized the bill as unfairly targeting suspects who have not yet been found guilty of a specific crime.

But the bill caused division in the party, with some members voting in favor of the measure, describing it as common sense.

During the debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, several Democrats referred to Trump’s decision to pardon rioters convicted of the 2021 US Capitol riot.

“These are the people who want you to believe, want us to believe, that they are keeping violent criminals off the streets,” said Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ahead of the vote, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said that during the previous Congress, Democrats had shown “they had no desire to stand up for women who were assaulted by people here illegally.”

“You have the same majority in the House, but you now have a willing partner in the Senate who actually wants to confront real issues that families face so that you don’t have more Laken Riley, you don’t have more murders of innocent people because . an open border,” he added.

ONE National Institute of Justice study suggests that undocumented migrants in the United States are arrested for violent and drug crimes at less than half the rate of native-born citizens.