Laken Riley Act
Clare Foran, Ted Barrett, Lauren Fox and Morgan Rimmer,
CNN
Fri, January 17, 2025
Laken Riley is pictured. The Senate is considering the Laken Riley Act on Friday.
A GOP-led bill to require the detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes is on the verge of passage in the Senate after a significant number of Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the measure in a critical vote on Friday.
The outcome of the vote reflects a major shift for Democrats as the party is under pressure over immigration in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidential win, which has led Democrats from competitive states and districts to say the party must do more to address voter concerns.
If the bill — called the Laken Riley Act — is signed into law, it would hand an early legislative win to Trump and congressional Republicans, who chose to bring up the measure as their first bill of the new Congress after winning the House, Senate and White House.
A vote for final passage in the US Senate could come as soon as next week.
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The House passed its version of the Laken Riley Act earlier this month, and it’s expected the chamber will take up and pass the Senate version of the bill once the measure passes out of the Senate, as expected. The Senate has been working to advance its own version of the legislation, which also underwent amendment votes.
The bill would require the detention of undocumented migrants charged with theft or burglary. The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year old Georgia student who was killed last year while she was out for a run. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in the case that reignited a national debate over immigration and crime.
While the bill won support from a critical mass of Democrats, it also exposed a rift in the party: Some called it a common-sense measure while others argued it would undermine civil liberties and due process and could harm public safety.
Friday’s procedural vote required 60 votes for the bill to advance, which meant that some Democrats needed to cross the aisle to vote with Republicans, who control only a 53-seat majority. The final vote was 61-35.
One controversial provision of the legislation would give state attorneys general the authority to sue in federal court over the decisions by federal officials, including immigration judges, to release certain immigrants from detention. They could also sue to force the State Department to impose visa sanctions against countries that refuse to accept nationals that are eligible for deportation.
A number of Democratic senators had initially voted to proceed to debate on the bill but said they did not support it in its current form and wanted to see a robust amendment process.
Earlier in the week, the Senate passed an amendment to the Laken Riley Act to expand the list of criminal offenses in the bill that migrants can be detained for if they are arrested to include assault on law enforcement officers. That amendment offered by GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, passed with broad bipartisan support, 70-25.
A second amendment, offered by Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, aimed to strike portions of the bill that Democratic critics said amounted to a major rewrite of immigration law. But it was rejected 46-49 in the Republican-led Senate.
Republicans set to give Trump big immigration win — while dividing Democrats
Laken Riley is pictured. The Senate is considering the Laken Riley Act on Friday.
A GOP-led bill to require the detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes is on the verge of passage in the Senate after a significant number of Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the measure in a critical vote on Friday.
The outcome of the vote reflects a major shift for Democrats as the party is under pressure over immigration in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidential win, which has led Democrats from competitive states and districts to say the party must do more to address voter concerns.
If the bill — called the Laken Riley Act — is signed into law, it would hand an early legislative win to Trump and congressional Republicans, who chose to bring up the measure as their first bill of the new Congress after winning the House, Senate and White House.
A vote for final passage in the US Senate could come as soon as next week.
ADVERTISEMENT
The House passed its version of the Laken Riley Act earlier this month, and it’s expected the chamber will take up and pass the Senate version of the bill once the measure passes out of the Senate, as expected. The Senate has been working to advance its own version of the legislation, which also underwent amendment votes.
The bill would require the detention of undocumented migrants charged with theft or burglary. The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year old Georgia student who was killed last year while she was out for a run. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in the case that reignited a national debate over immigration and crime.
While the bill won support from a critical mass of Democrats, it also exposed a rift in the party: Some called it a common-sense measure while others argued it would undermine civil liberties and due process and could harm public safety.
Friday’s procedural vote required 60 votes for the bill to advance, which meant that some Democrats needed to cross the aisle to vote with Republicans, who control only a 53-seat majority. The final vote was 61-35.
One controversial provision of the legislation would give state attorneys general the authority to sue in federal court over the decisions by federal officials, including immigration judges, to release certain immigrants from detention. They could also sue to force the State Department to impose visa sanctions against countries that refuse to accept nationals that are eligible for deportation.
A number of Democratic senators had initially voted to proceed to debate on the bill but said they did not support it in its current form and wanted to see a robust amendment process.
Earlier in the week, the Senate passed an amendment to the Laken Riley Act to expand the list of criminal offenses in the bill that migrants can be detained for if they are arrested to include assault on law enforcement officers. That amendment offered by GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, passed with broad bipartisan support, 70-25.
A second amendment, offered by Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, aimed to strike portions of the bill that Democratic critics said amounted to a major rewrite of immigration law. But it was rejected 46-49 in the Republican-led Senate.
Republicans set to give Trump big immigration win — while dividing Democrats
Al Weaver
Sun, January 19, 2025
THE HILL
Republicans are on the verge of giving President-elect Trump a big win on immigration to kick off his second term — and doing it with the help of Democrats while dividing the minority party on the hot-button issue.
The GOP spent years pillorying the Biden administration for being weak on the border and immigration, with that drumbeat helping them ascend to power this year.
It was no surprise then that the first major bill Republicans put forward was the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a Georgia college student who was killed last year by a man who had entered the country illegally. The legislation kills two birds with one stone: giving Republicans a win on the border while putting Democrats in a tough spot as they attempt to navigate the issue following the November shellacking.
“Some Democrats seem to have learned from the election that maybe we missed this one. Maybe we missed just how big a deal the open border was to Americans,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said. “They have their opportunity now to sort of redeem themselves on it.”
As many as 11 Senate Democrats are expected to vote with every Republican to pass the bill this week. Ten voted to end debate and advance the measure Friday. It is also slated to get a vote in the House this week, where it picked up support from 48 Democrats earlier this month.
The legislation would mandate federal detention of immigrants without legal status who are accused of theft, burglary and assaulting a law enforcement officer, among other things.
The political stakes were also immediately clear as four key Senate Democrats who are up in 2026 — Sens. Jon Ossoff (Ga.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Mark Warner (Va.) — voted to advance the package. Two Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) — were among its co-sponsors.
But the past week also brought to the forefront key divisions within the Democratic caucus on an issue that continues to give the party plenty of headaches.
On Tuesday, the Senate Democratic Conference held a longer-than-usual luncheon during which members had what one Democrat described as a “pretty intense discussion” about the bill.
One specific concern centered on the lack of a cohesive plan for how Democrats should handle the legislation. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) became animated on that topic during the luncheon, two Senate Democrats told The Hill.
“He was really wound up about the fact that we had no plan that was coherent,” a second Senate Democrat said.
Bennet confirmed that sentiment, saying that he “expressed [his] frustration about our strategy.”
Creating more issues for the party was that at least seven Senate Democrats indicated early on that they were prepared to vote for the Laken Riley Act in its original form. Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), Fetterman, Gallego, Ossoff and Peters all indicated as much heading into the initial procedural vote.
Dozens of other Democrats voted to open debate on the bill, saying they hoped to amend it. But that initial show of support effectively zapped any leverage Democrats may have had over the legislation or possible amendments, prompting Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to only bring two of them to the floor.
“I want to have this [amendment] process as open as possible,” Thune said. “My impression was … the Democrats were sort of anxious to get it behind them.”
The lone Democratic amendment was defeated, and he teed up Friday’s vote to end debate shortly after.
“If a handful of people say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go along with this,’ then Chuck has lost all of his negotiating leverage before we ever get started. … If we don’t use the little bit of leverage we’ve got, we’re toast,” the second Senate Democrat said, noting that issue and an internal dispute about child imprisonment related to the bill were the main points of contention in the caucus.
“Both of those were intense vectors of dispute,” they added.
Those were both on top of questions surrounding the cost of the bill and how it would be enforced. The Department of Homeland Security said this week that the proposal would cost nearly $27 billion in the first year and that it “would be impossible for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to execute within existing resources.”
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Nearly three dozen Democrats voted against ending debate Friday after only two amendments hit the floor. Ten Democrats — not including Fetterman, a co-sponsor — ultimately voted alongside every Republican who was present.
“It’s an issue that I think has tremendous resonance and clearly broad support in the public,” Thune said. “It’s a very hard vote for Democrats.”
Republicans, meanwhile, saw the bill as a way to get off on the right foot this Congress, especially after lawmakers struggled to take any steps on immigration in recent years despite the uptick in border crossings. That included the failed bipartisan border bill that Trump and conservatives killed last year.
Sen. Katie Britt (Ala.), a lead GOP proponent of the Laken Riley Act, complained that the Senate Judiciary Committee did not mark up any immigration or border bills during the 118th Congress.
“I think it’s a big day for America. If you look at what happened on Nov. 5 … people spoke loud and clear that they wanted something different,” Britt said, adding that she was encouraged by the Democratic support for the bill.
To some Republicans, the Laken Riley votes are serving as a solid barometer of the level of cooperation they should expect in the coming weeks and months.
“If people are genuinely supportive of the bill, they should be willing to take the heat that I did when I’m asking a minority of my conference to vote for a bill that all Democrats were going to vote for,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who was involved in immigration-related bipartisan talks in recent years.
“This is a great test for that,” he said. “It will give me a great indication whether or not I have anybody to work with.”
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego side with GOP to advance Laken Riley Act
Rey Covarrubias Jr., Arizona Republic
Fri, January 17, 2025
Democratic Senators from Arizona voted alongside Republicans on Friday to advance a tough immigration crime bill, the Laken Riley Act.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., cosponsored the bill that requires authorities to detain undocumented immigrants suspected of theft-related crimes and gives further power to state attorneys general over illegal immigration.
The bill was named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who was in the U.S. illegally, with her case later becoming a topic on the presidential campaign trail.
Ten U.S. Democratic Senators, including Gallego and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., voted 61-35 on Friday to advance the bill, narrowly overcoming the 60-vote threshold required to thwart a filibuster. A final Senate vote on the bill could come as early as Monday.
The other eight Democratic senators who crossed the aisle to join their GOP counterparts to advance the bill were: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of New Mexico, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Nearly the entirety of votes to block the bill came from Democrats and Democratic-aligned independents, according to the Senate roll call vote.
Once the Senate passes the bill, it will go back to the House, where it will likely be approved, before sending it to President-elect Donald Trump's desk to be signed into law. Trump takes office Monday.
Gallego and Kelly previously voiced support for the immigration crime bill
Gallego earlier voiced his support as a cosponsor of the Laken Riley Act, noting in a written statement that “Arizonans know the real-life consequences of today’s border crisis."
"We must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law, to prevent situations like what occurred to Laken Riley," Gallego said.
A Kelly spokesperson cited the senator's previous support for the bill.
“I support this effort because federal authorities need to protect our communities from criminals. Keeping Arizonans safe is my top priority and I’m committed to working with Republicans and Democrats on solutions to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system," he said in a written statement.
Critics denounce the Laken Riley Act
Hours after the Senate voted to advance the bill, the American Civil Liberties Union released a statement from Sarah Mehta, the organization's senior border policy counsel who called the Laken Riley Act "an extreme and reactive bill that will authorize the largest expansion of mandatory detention we have seen in decades."
Mehta praised the 35 Senate Democrats who voted no on the bill.
"We need our elected leaders to join these senators who showed political courage and leadership right now, with more attacks on immigrants on the horizon," Mehta said.
In Arizona, Democratic state Senate leaders previously ripped the bill passing the House of Representatives.
State Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan of Tucson and Assistant Democratic Leader Flavio Bravo of Phoenix condemned the vote on Jan. 10 in written statements.
"Congressional Republicans opened the 119th Congress by forcing a vote on H.R. 29, which is a far cry from that bipartisan deal and accomplishes far less while placing communities at risk," Sundareshan said.
Bravo, the assistant Democratic Senate leader, said the bill opens the door for "widespread racial discrimination and mass detention."
The Arizona Republic's Ronald J. Hansen and USA TODAY's Riley Beggin and Lauren Villagran contributed to this article.
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