The Laken-Riley bill passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday after prior Senate approval and is now on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed. This is the Trump administration’s first election victory It’s a substantial deal.
The Republican Party’s Laken Riley Act goes to the President Donald Trump’s This is the first bill he has signed into law after the party took back both chambers of Congress and the White House.
The House of Representatives passed the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 263-156, the second time the lower house has proposed the bill this month.
On January 7, it passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 264 to 159. All voting Republicans supported the bill, along with 48 Democrats – two more than the last vote.
The GOP-controlled Senate The bill also advanced in a bipartisan 64-35 vote, but added measures to deport illegal immigrants who attack a police officer or cause the death or “great bodily harm” of another person.
All votes against the bill came from Democrats:
The original bill would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to arrest illegal immigrants accused of theft crimes. It would also allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens by illegal immigration.
The majority of Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that deporting defendants who have not been convicted is a sensitive matter. But supporters of the bill point out that people here illegally have already violated U.S. law.
This argument is specious; People who are in the country illegally have already broken the law by being there. The Laken Riley Act also focuses on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes beyond their illegal entry.
Previously on RedState: The Laken-Riley bill clears the Senate and heads back to the House
BREAKING: Republicans’ control of the Senate begins with a bang in the vote on the Laken-Riley Act
The final vote was bipartisan in every way, with 48 Democrats joining Republicans to pass the measure. That should (but probably won’t) prevent any complaints about partisanship in this law. The law, of course, is named after Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was attacked and murdered on University of Georgia campuses by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. That illegal alien, Jose Ibarra, is now serving a life sentence for the crime. Before he attacked Laken Riley, Ibarra had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but not detained. The Laken Riley Act is designed to prevent something like this from happening again.
The bill was initially passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in early 2024, but then went to the Senate, where then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) allowed it to die.
See related: The House of Representatives passes an immigration bill named after murdered Georgia nursing student Laken Riley
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee wasted no time counting the coup, and they deserve it.
🚨BREAKING: The Laken-Riley Act is on its way to President Trump’s desk for him to sign. pic.twitter.com/gAR3ba7LYs
– House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) January 22, 2025
President Trump is (obviously) expected to sign the bill as soon as it lands on his desk.
