The U.S. House on Tuesday in bipartisan fashion passed the Laken Riley Act, which would require Homeland Security Department officials to detain undocumented immigrants who are charged with theft-related crimes.
In a 264-159 vote, 48 Democrats voted with all Republicans present to pass the bill, the first in the 119th Congress. The measure also allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show the federal government harmed their states by not implementing immigration laws, and it allows states to sue the Homeland Security Department over alleged harms caused to citizens related to illegal immigration.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where at least two Democratic senators, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Gary Peters of Michigan, have backed it. The bill would need five more Democratic votes in favor to break the filibuster, assuming all 53 Republicans back it, which they have said they would.
The bill is named after a Georgia nursing student who was killed in February while on a run. An undocumented immigrant was convicted for her killing, which became a political rallying cry on the right to denounce the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.
A previous version of the bill passed the House last year but failed to advance in the Senate. That bill had 37 Democratic “yes” votes in the House.
