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The House of Representatives passed a Senate-revised version of the Laken Riley Act Wednesday, sending the first piece of significant legislation to President Trump’s desk for his expected signature.
Lawmakers voted 263–156 to approve the Senate-amended version of the bill dedicated to slain jogger Laken Riley, who was viciously strangled and beat to death in February 2024 by an illegal immigrant charged with multiple past crimes.
“Today we’re going to send to President Trump’s desk his very first bill to sign into law,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Wednesday.
“You look at the contrast between last Congress, where we passed the same bill, and Chuck Schumer made it clear that in the Democrats’ Senate, they had no desire to stand up for women who were assaulted by people here illegally. Joe Biden would not have signed that bill.”
Under the Laken Riley Act, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is required to detain illegal immigrants who are caught engaging the crimes of “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.”
The measure also enables state attorneys general to file lawsuits against the Homeland Security secretary if the government fails to enforce immigration laws, resulting in “the state or its residents experience harm, including financial harm in excess of $100.”
On Monday after Trump was inaugurated, the Senate passed the Laken Riley Act in a 64 to 35 vote, with 12 Democrats onboard. But the upper chamber tacked on two amendments, which meant that the House had to vote on it again.
The two amendments added to the bill include one from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), which compels ICE to detain illegal immigrants who were charged with wounding or killing someone, as well as an amendment from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) that ensures attacks against law enforcement will result in automatic detentions.
Democrats who opposed the Laken Riley Act argued that immigration authorities lack the resources needed to enforce it and claimed, without evidence, that resources will get diverted from enforcement against violent crimes.
“This bill comes with an astronomical price tag and will create more problems than it solves. It will make our immigration system more chaotic and our country less safe,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) said in a statement.
The Connecticut senator, who helped negotiate an unsuccessful border bill last year, then alleged, “under this bill, people charged with serious crimes will be released because detention centers will be forced to detain a child who stole a pack of gum from a gas station instead.”
Republicans are planning to marshall more resources for law enforcement to help ensure that violent illegal immigrants get deported.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Georgia in Athens, was brutally murdered during a jog on Feb. 22, 2024, by Venezuelan prison-gang member Jose Ibarra, 26.
Ibarra was convicted on all counts related to her murder and sentenced to life in prison last November.
A violent Tren de Aragua gangbanger, Ibarra had entered the country via the southern border into El Paso, Texas on Sept. 8, 2022, but was released due to insufficient detention space, according to immigration officials.
Prior to Riley’s death, Ibarra had multiple run-ins with the law. In December 2023, an arrest warrant was issued for him over his failure to make a court appearance for a shoplifting case in Georgia.
Previously, he had also been arrested for child endangerment after blitzing through the streets of Queens on a moped with his wife’s child holding on for dear life, authorities told The Post.
ICE later disclosed that Ibarra was not held after his arrest in the Empire State because he was released before officials could get a detainer.
The Laken Riley Act, which was introduced by Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), the Peach State representative whose district encompasses Athens where Riley was bludgeoned to death.
Collins, 57, had introduced the measure last year and it passed the House but was not taken up in the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats at the time.
The Laken Riley Act is one of several measures that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has dubbed “low hanging fruit” legislation on immigration policy while Republican lawmakers eye a more comprehensive border security package.
That comprehensive border reform is expected to be packaged with other marquee GOP objections on issues such as energy and defense. House Republicans want the big package to encompass tax reform as well, though their Senate peers have asked for that to be bifurcated.
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