Senate Ready to Hear Laken Riley Act

On Tuesday, January 7, the US House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act – a short bill that seeks to require the detention of any illegal alien who commits burglary or theft. With a 264 to 159 result, all Republican and 48 Democratic representatives voted to advance it to the Senate. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill on Friday, January 10.

Coming in at just nine pages, HR. 7511 has two elements: It says the Department of Homeland Security must detain illegal migrants who are involved in theft-related crimes and allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believe it is derelict in its duty to enforce immigration law.

Does It Have the Votes?

The bill is named after Laken Riley, the Georgia student who was murdered by Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who entered the country illegally. Ibarra had numerous run-ins with the law, including endangering a minor and a citation for misdemeanor theft. The GOP argument is that if this law were in place, he would not have been in the country to murder Riley. In the Senate, it requires 60 votes to pass, and that number is far from guaranteed despite the Republican majority.

The current Senate balance sees Democrats in the minority; assuming all Republicans support the bill, they still need some Democrat lawmakers to cross the aisle. Notably, according to a memo from his office, the passage of the law is now co-sponsored by Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. Speaking to Fox News, he said:

“For me it’s … really common sense. And I’d like to remind everybody that we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrants here illegally that have [been] convicted of crimes. Who wants to allow them to remain in our nation? And now if you’re here illegally and you’re committing crimes and those things, I don’t know why anybody thinks that it’s controversial that they all need to go.”

It will actually require eight extra votes, because West Virginia’s Jim Justice (R) is not being sworn in until January 13. There’s a good chance that other Democrats (and maybe even one of the two independents who caucus with the party) will join the GOP caucus.

Does America Support It?

President-elect Trump made deporting illegal immigrants a big part of his campaign, and it’s an idea with which a large portion of the American public agrees. A Marquette Law School poll in 2024 found that 58% are in favor of “deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home countries.” A Gallup poll revealed that 47% favor “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country.”

This consensus is just for people living in the US illegally – not for those who have committed further crimes. The support for deporting illegal immigrants who have chosen to commit crimes in their new home could be much higher.

1. The US House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, which requires illegal immigrants arrested for theft-related crimes be detained by the Department of Homeland Security.
2. It was named for a student from Georgia who was murdered by an illegal alien with a criminal record.
3. Because bills require support from 60 out of 100 senators to pass, even with a Republican majority in the Senate, it will need some Democrat support.