The US Senate decided in a cross-party vote of 64 to 35 passed the Laken Riley Act and sent it back to the House of Representatives. The bill is expected to pass easily early next week and will be the first bill to land on President Trump’s desk.
The bill, named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was murdered by a beneficiary of Joe Biden’s criminal catch-and-don’t-give-a-crap policy, required the Department of Homeland Security to… Must arrest a person who is illegally accused of certain, usually violent, crimes. Her name became synonymous with a broken southern border and a metaphor for a government that genuinely didn’t care whether Americans lived or died.
All Republicans voted to pass the bill and 12 Democrats joined it: Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.; Maggie Hassan, DN.H.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H.; Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; Mark Warner, D-Va., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
The House of Representatives must now reconcile its bill with the version passed by the Senate:
The measure, originally introduced in the Senate by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take custody and detain undocumented immigrants charged with committing “burglary, theft “Be charged with, arrested, or convicted of theft or shoplifting.”
The Senate approved two amendments to the bill before final passage: one from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, adding assault on a police officer to the offenses that result in incarceration, and another from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, this expands this to include actions that result in death or bodily harm.
This is a sturdy start for the Senate under John Thune, one that will hopefully bring fresh energy to an institution that, under the leadership of Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, has done little except complain and raise money through complaints.
