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GOP’s Laken Riley Act Heads to President donald trump desk to become the first bill signed into law after the party retakes both chambers of Congress and the White House.
The House of Representatives approved the bill in a 263-156 vote on Wednesday, the second time the lower chamber advanced the bill this month.
It passed the House by 264 votes to 159 on January 7. All voting Republicans supported the bill, along with 48 Democrats, two more than in the most recent vote.
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Trump is expected to sign the Laken Riley Act as the first legislation of his new term. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
He Senate controlled by the Republican Party He also advanced the bill in a bipartisan 64-35 vote, but added measures to deport illegal immigrants who assault a police officer or cause death or “serious bodily injury” to another person.
The original bill would direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to detain illegal immigrants accused of theft-related crimes. It would also allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens due to illegal immigration.
Most Democrats were against the bill, arguing that allowing people accused but not convicted of crimes to be deported is a slippery slope. But supporters of the bill point out that people here illegally have already broken U.S. law.
Jose Ibarra, left, was found guilty of 10 counts in the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, right. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
It’s notable, however, that more Democrats supported the bill when it passed the House this month than when it first came up for a vote in 2024. It’s a stark difference from last year, when the then-controlled Senate by Democrats, did not even bring up the bill for a vote.
“Nothing ever happens in this city until the American people demand it,” the bill’s leader, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital when asked about the increased support from the left.
“And they’ve been screaming at the top of their lungs for something to happen to solve the border problem.”
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, who led Sarah’s Law, one of the amendments adopted in the bill, told Fox News Digital: “Almost a decade ago, the life of 21-year-old Sarah Root was tragically turned upside down. cut short when she was murdered. processed”.
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Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., led the bill in the House. (Bill Clark)
republican legislators They are working to continue fulfilling Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal immigration and border security amid a flurry of executive orders from the president on those same issues. They are positioning the Laken Riley Act as the first bill to get Trump’s signature as a reflection of their effort to make his agenda permanent.
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The bill is named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia campus.
José Ibarra, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Laken Riley, had been arrested before but was never detained by ICE.
