Washington — The Senate on Monday approved a bill known as the Laken Riley Act aimed at expanding the federal government’s mandate to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally, as congressional Republicans look to deliver for President Trump as he enters office.
In a 64 to 35 vote, the Senate approved the legislation. The measure marks the first policy legislation of the new Congress, which the House approved earlier this month before the Senate amended it.
The House will need to approve the Senate’s changes before it can head to the president’s desk.
The Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant last year, would expand mandatory detention to include noncitizens convicted of or charged with burglary, larceny, theft or shoplifting, as well as those who admit to committing those crimes. The legislation would also empower state attorneys general who claim their states or residents have been harmed by immigration policies to sue the federal government.
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who sponsored the bill in the Senate, called the legislation a “targeted, common sense, life-saving bill” ahead of the vote Monday, urging her colleagues to support the measure.
“Today we return to common sense, we return to practicality,” Britt said on the Senate floor. “If you come here illegally and you commit a crime, you should not be free to roam the streets of this nation. Our children deserve better.”
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Though dozens of Senate Democrats had supported opening debate on the measure earlier this month, many did so while pushing for amendments to the legislation. The Senate approved two Republican-backed amendments, which expanded the legislation’s scope to include the assault of a law enforcement officer and crimes that result in the death “or serious bodily injury of another person” as grounds for mandatory detention. But a Democratic-led amendment to cut the provision that empowers state attorneys general fell short. In the final procedural hurdle last week, 10 Democrats voted with Republicans.
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, argued Monday that the bill is not targeted enough, pointing to the conditions for detaining immigrants who are accused of committing a “very broad set of crimes” without considering “how young they are or, more important, whether they’re a threat to our communities.”
While the amendment process wasn’t robust enough for many Democrats to support the measure on final passage, the legislation maintained the necessary support for passage with the new Republican majority.
The legislation has sparked questions over whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement could fully enforce this new mandate without more funding, since the agency is currently using roughly 39,000 of 41,000 detention beds funded by Congress. The Department of Homeland Security is mandated under current law to detain noncitizens convicted of certain crimes, including “aggravated felonies,” or serious offenses like murder and sexual assault.
Last year, the House also passed the measure, but it stalled in the then-Democratic controlled Senate. But Democrats appeared more willing to engage on the measure after the election. Voters cited immigration as a key issue and delivered Republican victories up and down the ballot. Earlier this month, 48 House Democrats also joined Republicans to approve the measure, up from the 37 who did so last year.
As Republicans made immigration a key platform during the 2024 election and touted plans to address border security with a new GOP trifecta, Democrats have repeatedly cited the breakdown of a bipartisan border deal last year, which came at the urging of Mr. Trump.
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