House passes Laken Riley bill, sparking immigration backlash

The House passed an amended version of the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday by a vote of 263-156, setting in motion major immigration reform at the start of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Forty-six Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the bill, breaking with Democratic leadership.

The bill, which was expected to pass two weeks after it initially passed the bill, will now go to Trump’s desk and will symbolically become the first measure he signs into law in his second administration.

The updated measure, which cleared the Senate with some Democratic support on Tuesday, requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants for theft-related crimes and includes amendments from Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst that expanded the scope of offenses there triggers deprivation of liberty.

The death of Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was murdered by Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant, on February 22, 2024, fueled the immigration debate in the United States and became a lightning rod issue for Trump on the campaign trail. Ibarra had entered the United States illegally in 2022 but was allowed to remain in the United States while his case was pending, and he had been charged with misdemeanor shoplifting while living in Georgia.

The legislation would direct immigration officers to detain undocumented immigrants suspected of minor crimes, including shoplifting. It also authorizes the attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show that their states are harmed by failure to implement national immigration policies, as well as allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harms caused to citizens allegedly due to illegal immigration.

The bill, a major Republican-driven initiative, initially cleared the House on a 264-159 vote on Jan. 7, with 48 Democrats joining Republicans in voting for the bill. The modified version then the Senate passed the first bill to pass the floor this session on Tuesday by a vote of 64-35, with the support of 12 Democrats, sending the new bill back to the House for final approval.

“Illegal migrants shouldn’t be here in the first place,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said on the Senate floor leading up to the bill’s vote. “Everybody knows it’s against the law to enter the United States without our permission. Yet if they come here and break our law, injure and kill an American, the federal government must prioritize their detention and deportation.”

Cornyn’s amendment, which adds assault on a law enforcement officer to the list of crimes that would mandate the detention of an undocumented migrant, passed with significant Democratic support, 70-25.

The bill previously passed the House in the last Congress, but was not taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“Chuck Schumer made it clear that in a Democratic Senate they had no desire to stand up for women who were assaulted by people here illegally,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “Joe Biden would not have signed that bill, but now with John Thune, you have the same majority in the House, but you now have a willing partner in the Senate who actually wants to confront the real issues that families face, so you don’t have more Laken Riley, you don’t have more murders of innocent people because of an open border.”

ICE estimated enforcing the bill will cost close to $27 billion in its first year, according to a document obtained by ABC News, up from an earlier estimate of $3.2 billion.

ICE has said that a lack of cooperation from local and state law enforcement officials can make their jobs more difficult, and that going after people for property crimes can prevent them from targeting “more serious offenders.”

After a recent review of immigrants on their non-detainer docket, ICE’s enforcement and removal operations found about 110,000 people with offenses referenced in the law, the document said. That is higher than the original number of over 60,000.

To enforce the law, ICE must expand detention capacity to 151,500 beds. It is currently only funded to have 41,500 beds.

“Full implementation would be impossible for ICE to accomplish within existing resources,” the document noted.

“This bill comes with an astronomical price tag and will create more problems than it solves,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat. “It will make our immigration system more chaotic and our country less safe. Under this bill, people charged with serious crimes will be released because detention centers will instead be forced to detain a child who stole a pack of gum from a gas station.”

On Tuesday, 13 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Thune pledging to work with Republicans in “good faith” to provide the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to pass certain immigration and border security measures.

“We can solve big challenges when we work together, and there is much work to be done to improve border security, protect Dreamers and farmworkers, and adjust our immigration system to better reflect the needs of our country and our modern economy,” the Democrats wrote. . “These issues require bipartisan cooperation, and we stand ready to work with you to develop meaningful and lasting solutions to these important issues that have gone unresolved for far too long under both Democratic and Republican controlled administrations.”

Of the 13 who signed the letter, 10 voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act. Those votes were needed to help the bill reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.