Congress passes immigration detention bill in first legislative victory for Trump

CNN
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The House voted Wednesday to pass a GOP-led bill to require the detention of undocumented migrants accused of certain crimes, handing an early legislative victory to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who chose to bring up the measure as their first bill in the new bill. Congress.

The bill — called the Laken Riley Act — will next go to the White House to be signed into law after the Senate approved the measure earlier this week. The House vote was 263 to 156 with 46 Democrats voting in favor.

Republicans made the legislation a top priority after winning the House, Senate and White House, but the bill would not have been able to advance to final passage in the Senate without the support of core Democrats, as Republicans only control a narrow majority.

Passage of the bill comes as Trump has vowed to make an immigration crackdown a central element of his agenda, giving Republicans a legislative achievement within the first week of the president’s return to the White House. But the bill faces major hurdles to implementation, as federal officials have warned lawmakers that existing resources are insufficient to execute the law.

The fact that the bill won significant support from Democrats signals a remarkable shift for the party in the wake of Trump’s presidential victory, as Democrats from competing states and districts say the party must do more to address voters’ concerns over immigration.

However, the legislation revealed a rift within the party, with some Democrats calling it a common sense measure while others argued it threatens to undermine civil liberties, due process and public safety.

The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented migrants who are in the United States illegally or without legal status if they have been accused of, arrested for, convicted of, or have admitted to certain crimes, including theft and burglary. The Senate passed amendments to expand the list of offenses covered by the bill to include assaults on law enforcement officers and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student from Georgia who was killed last year while out jogging. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in the case that sparked a national debate about immigration and crime.

A controversial but under-the-radar provision of the legislation would give attorneys general the authority to sue in federal courts over decisions by federal officials, including immigration judges, to release certain immigrants from detention. They could also sue to force the State Department to impose visa sanctions against countries that refuse to accept nationals eligible for deportation.

Democrats who oppose the legislation have argued that it would undermine public safety by allowing courts to second-guess legitimate decisions made by law enforcement officers serving on the front lines, and could undermine U.S. foreign policy by giving state attorneys general and federal judges overly expansive power regarding to block visas.

Although the bill has now been passed by Congress, there are hurdles ahead of its implementation.

The Laken Riley Act will require a ramp-up period and a boost in funding, immigration and customs enforcement privately warned lawmakers in recent weeks.

“Full implementation would be impossible for ICE to accomplish within existing resources,” the agency said in a memo to lawmakers this month obtained by CNN.

The agency said its original estimate of $3.2 billion to carry out the action “does not represent the full cost of implementation.”

ICE is financed for 41,500 detention beds. As of early December, there were more than 39,000 people in ICE custody, according to the agency.

ICE estimated it would need an additional 110,000 beds to support the population of people covered by the new law, far exceeding its current inventory.

“If additional resources are made available, a ramp-up period would be required due to implementation challenges such as staffing, availability of detention beds and contracting/acquisition timelines,” the memo said.

Trump has moved quickly after being sworn in on Monday to take a series of sweeping immigration actions that included declaring a national emergency on the southern border of the United States and jump-starting the process to end birthright citizenship, a move that has already prompted legal challenge.

This story has been updated with further developments.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.