WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that would require the detention of illegal immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. This is the first bill that President Donald Trump can sign as Congress, with bipartisan support, quickly followed suit with its plans to combat illegal immigration.
The passage of the Laken-Riley Act, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered in the country illegally by a Venezuelan last year, shows how much the political debate over immigration has shifted following Trump's victory. Immigration policy has often been one of the most entrenched issues in Congress, but a crucial caucus of 46 Democrats joined with Republicans to overturn the tough proposal for passage by a vote of 263 to 156.
“For decades, it has been nearly impossible for our government to agree on solutions to the problems at our border and within our country,” said Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama. She called the law “perhaps the most significant immigration enforcement legislation” Congress has passed in nearly three decades.
Meanwhile, the new president has issued a series of executive orders aimed at closing the Mexican border to immigrants and ultimately deporting millions of immigrants without permanent residency status in the United States. On Wednesday, Trump also canceled refugee resettlement and his administration has signaled its intention to prosecute local law enforcement officers who do not enforce his new immigration policies.
Republican congressional leaders have made clear they want to follow suit, although their biggest challenge will be finding a way to approve funding to implement Trump's plans.
“What he is doing is providing impetus for what will ultimately be our legislative agenda,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
House Republicans initially passed the bill last year with support from 37 Democrats. The aim was to politically rebuke then-President Joe Biden's handling of the southern border. It then failed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
This year, Republicans, who now have control of both chambers of Congress, have made it their top priority. When it was introduced in the Senate, 12 Democrats voted to pass it, and when the House voted on a version of the bill earlier this month, 48 Democrats supported it.
The vast majority of U.S. adults support deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. However, only about 37% of U.S. adults support deporting immigrants to the U.S. illegally who have not been convicted of a crime.
“While the bill is not perfect, it sends a clear message that we believe criminals should be deported,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat who has called on his party to strengthen immigration enforcement to support.
Under the law, federal authorities would be required to detain any immigrant who is arrested or charged with crimes such as shoplifting. The scope of the proposal was expanded in the Senate to include people accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer or committing a crime that resulted in someone being injured or killed.
The bill also gives state attorneys general the legal authority to sue the federal government for damages caused by federal immigration decisions. That gives states new power to set immigration policy if they have already tried to push back against presidential decisions under the Trump and Biden administrations.
Ultimately, even the Trump administration may struggle to implement the new requirements unless Congress appropriates funding later this year. Republicans are currently considering how to push their priorities through Congress through a party-line process known as budget reconciliation. They put the cost of funding Trump's border and deportation priorities at around $100 billion.
Trump has launched “the greatest logistical undertaking of our lifetime – deporting the vast majority of illegal immigrants living in the United States,” Ken Cuccinelli, who led U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during Trump's first presidency, told a Senate panel recently.
Cuccinelli said it would require an increase in immigration judges, prosecutors and other staff, but Trump has also paved the way for the use of military troops, bases and other resources to carry out the deportations.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that implementing the Laken Riley Act would cost $26.9 billion in the first year, including an increase of 110,000 ICE detention beds.
Republicans pointed to the bill's namesake, Laken Riley, and how she was killed by a Venezuelan migrant who had previously been detained by local authorities but released while pursuing his immigration case.
“If this act had been the law of the land, he would never have had the opportunity to kill her,” said Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.