WASHINGTON (AP) — The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would require federal authorities to arrest illegal immigrants accused of theft. Republicans seized on the recent death of a nursing student in Georgia to criticize President Joe Biden's border policies just hours before his State of the Union address.
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After 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University, was killed on a morning run late last month, Republicans introduced the Laken Riley Act in the House of Representatives on an emergency basis, coinciding with Biden's annual address.
The bill passed easily by a vote of 251 to 170, with all Republicans and 37 Democrats voting in favor. But the nine-page bill was designed more to make a political point than to pass legislation and had little chance of passing in the Democratic-dominated Senate.
With immigration becoming a top issue in the presidential election, Republicans are using almost every tool at their disposal – including impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – to condemn the president's handling of immigration. But Biden is also attacking Republican lawmakers for rejecting a bipartisan bill last month that would have curbed the number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Republicans will not tolerate the release of dangerous criminals in our communities, and that is exactly what the Biden administration has done,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News.
Riley's death has become a rallying point for Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, after authorities arrested Jose Ibarra on murder and assault charges. The Venezuelan had entered the U.S. illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. He has yet to plead guilty to the charges.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Ibarra was arrested and charged by New York police in August with injury to a child under 17 and a driver's license violation. Ibarra was released before immigration officials could ask New York authorities to hold him until immigration officials could take him into custody, the agency said. New York authorities have said they have no record of the arrest.
The bill would also allow states to sue the federal government for crimes committed by immigrants who entered the country illegally. It was part of a broader Republican campaign to mock immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and link them to violent crime.
“Laken is just one of the tragic examples of innocent American citizens who have lost their lives because they were brutally and violently attacked by illegal criminals who roam our streets,” Johnson said.
The spokesman said his guests at the State of the Union address would include New York police officers who had a brawl with migrants in Times Square.
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Overall, however, there is no evidence that immigrants are more prone to violent crime. Several studies have found that immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States. However, groups that support restrictive immigration policies dispute or reject these findings.
According to a study published by the National Academy of Sciences based on data from the Texas Department of Public Safety from 2012 to 2018, native-born Americans are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes as people who are in the country illegally.
Democrats argued that Republicans had shown they were not serious about implementing changes in border policy by rejecting a bipartisan Senate proposal that would have reformed the U.S. asylum system with faster and stricter enforcement. Republicans largely criticized that bill as inadequate.
Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts accused Republican lawmakers of exploiting Riley's death for political purposes.
“The idea that you put a bill like this on the floor to take advantage of a terrible tragedy, a bill that is not going to accomplish anything, a bill that you know is going to go nowhere, is really, really sad,” McGovern said.
