Fresh off President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Senate on Monday passed a bill that would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes, the first measure he likely will sign into law and giving more weight to his plans to deport millions of migrants.
Trump has made a broad crackdown on illegal immigration his top priority, and Congress, with Republicans in control and some Democrats willing to go along, is showing it is ready to follow suit. The bill passed 64-35, with 12 Democrats joining with Republicans voting in favor.
Passage of the Laken Riley Act — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — was a sign of how Congress has shifted sharply right on border security and immigration. Passage came just minutes before Trump signed the first of his executive orders.
“We don’t want criminals coming into our country,” Trump told supporters at the Capitol earlier Monday, adding he looked forward to holding a bill signing “within a week or so.”
The bill now heads back to the Republican-controlled House, which passed its version earlier this month and will need to approve changes made in the Senate. The Senate expanded the legislation to target immigrants who assault a police officer or are accused of crimes that kill or seriously injure someone.
Trump is already ending many of former President Joe Biden’s border and immigration programs, turning the United States away from the Democrat’s attempts at more humane immigration policies at a time when record numbers of people were sometimes arriving at the border with Mexico. Swift action on immigration policy in the new Congress was proof of how Democrats were no longer resisting some strict enforcement proposals.
“Anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable. That’s why I voted to pass the Laken Riley Act,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said on social media after its passage. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said that a “secure border” and support for immigration were “fully compatible.”
The bill cleared a key procedural vote in the Senate last week also with support from Democrats, and similar legislation gained support from 48 House Democrats earlier this month.
“If you come into this country illegally and you commit a crime, you should not be free to roam the streets of this nation,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who helped push the bill through the Senate.
The legislation would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of crimes, including shoplifting, and would grant states new legal standing to challenge federal immigration decisions, including by immigration judges.
Critics of the bill say that provision will open the door for Republican state attorneys general to wage a legal battle against federal immigration decisions, injecting even more uncertainty and partisanship into immigration policy.
Deporting millions of migrants or enforcing the Laken Riley Act will largely depend on Congress’ ability to allocate roughly $100 billion that Republicans have proposed for border security and immigration enforcement. Republicans are debating how to approve that money through a process known as budget reconciliation that will allow them to squeeze it through Congress purely on party-line votes.
That won’t be easy in the House, where Republicans hold the majority by just a few seats. They will also face intense pressure to balance their pledges to tame budget deficits and concerns about the economic, as well as humanitarian, impacts of mass deportations.
Currently, the Laken Riley Act has no funding attached to it, but Democrats on the Appropriations Committee estimate the bill would cost $83 billion over the next three years, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has estimated it would need to nearly triple the number of detention beds and conduct more than 80 removal flights per week to implement the requirements, according to the memo.
“That’s a lot of money to spend on a bill that is going to cause chaos, punish legal immigrants and undermine due process in America — all while drawing resources away from true threats,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a floor speech last week.
Democrats also raised concerns about its impact on immigrants who have received deportation protection from an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump sought to end the program during his first term, but he also occasionally expressed openness to allowing those covered by it to stay in the U.S.
