The House on Wednesday passed the Laken Riley Act, sending the bill to the White House to make it the first legislation President Donald Trump will sign into law.
The House voted 263-156 to pass the Laken Riley Act, with 46 Democrats joining GOP lawmakers to pass the legislation.
The Laken Riley Act was named after the 22-year-old nursing student who was brutally murdered in Athens, Georgia, by an illegal alien released into the United States interior.
The bill would require DHS to take into custody illegal aliens arrested, charged, or convicted for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
House Republicans passed the bill in early January and enjoyed unanimous support from House Republicans, with 48 House Democrats backing the bill at that time.
The bill traveled to the Senate, andthe Senate passed it on Monday by a 64-35 vote, just hours after Trump was inaugurated.
This is a stark contrast from just last year, when Senate Democrats twice blocked the bill from being brought to the Senate floor for a vote.
The Senate strengthened the House-passed Laken Riley Act with two amendments, including Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX), which adds assault of a law enforcement officer to crimes that trigger detention. The second amendment is Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) proposal, Sarah’s Law.
Ernst pushed for Sarah’s Law as the country approaches the 9th anniversary of the death of 21-year-old Iowan, Sarah Root, at the hands of an illegal alien driving drunk.
The bill would amend the mandatory detention provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to require the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to detain illegal aliens criminally charged with killing or seriously injuring another person. It would also mandate that when encountering an illegal alien subject to mandatory detention, ICE must identify victims and inform their families.
“Our laws will no longer prioritize dangerous criminal illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens. Nearly nine years to the day when 21-year-old Iowan Sarah Root was killed, the Senate has passed Sarah’s Law in her honor to close the loophole that allowed her killer to escape justice,” Ernst said in a statement to Breitbart News on Monday.
“Today, Republicans and Democrats put partisan politics aside to save lives and reform a broken system that has failed American citizens across the country,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), the House sponsor of the bill, said in a statement after the vote, adding:
The Laken Riley Act is bipartisan legislation that fixes a bipartisan problem, and I am proud that the country has come together to ensure that no family must live through the pain that an illegal immigrant has caused Riley’s. Laken Riley was in school to save lives, and although her opportunities were taken away, her name will live on as this bill prevents deaths like hers.
“Today is a new day in America and a new day in the U.S. Senate with the passage of the Laken Riley Act—which will become the strongest immigration enforcement bill enacted into law since 1996. I was honored to lead a bipartisan group of my colleagues to pass this lifesaving legislation,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), the Senate sponsor of the bill, said in a written statement on Monday after the bill’s passage through the Senate.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
