In a first legislative win to President Donald Trump, the US Congress on Wednesday gave the final approval to a GOP-led bill that would require the detention and deportation of undocumented migrants who enter the country without authorization and are charged with certain crimes. The bill – titled the Laken Riley Act – capped the opening salvo in a broader crackdown on immigration that the President has promised.
The legislation received 263 to 156 with 46 Democrats voting in its favour, a sign of the growing cross-party consensus around taking a hard-line approach against those who enter the US illegally.
The bill is named after a 22-year-old Georgia student who was killed last year while out for a run. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. The convict had previously been arrested in a shoplifting case but had not been detained. Laken Riley’s case reignited a debate over immigration and crime in America.
Under the provisions of the bill, the Department of Homeland Security is required to detain undocumented migrants– people who are in the US unlawfully or without legal status– if they have been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or have admitted to certain criminal offences, including theft and burglary, according to a report by The New York Times.
The House of Representatives passed the bill after the Senate debated changes to it last week, where amendments were adopted to reportedly expand the list of criminal offences covered under the bill to include assault on law enforcement officers and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Republicans made the legislation their top priority after winning the government trifecta. Still, it would not have been able to advance to final passage without support from key Democrats as Republicans control only a narrow majority.
Democrats who opposed the legislation reportedly argued that the bill could undercut US foreign policy by giving state attorney generals and federal judges overly expansive power with respect to blocking visas. Though it is passed out of Congress to reach President Trump’s office– who on Monday started his second term by issuing a raft of executive orders that kicked off his immigration crackdown– there are still hurdles ahead for its implementation.
Per a CNN report, the Laken Riley Act will require a ramp-up period and a boost in funding. “Full implementation would be impossible for ICE to execute within existing resources,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a memo to lawmakers this month.
According to the agency’s estimate, it would need an additional 110,000 beds to support the population of people the new act covers, far exceeding its current inventory. ICE is funded for 41,500 detention beds and already had over 39,000 people in its custody till December.
The agency said that its initial cost estimate of $3.2 billion to execute the act “does not represent the full cost of implementation.”
“If additional resources are provided, a ramp-up period would be needed due to implementation challenges such as hiring, detention bed availability, and contracting/ acquisition timelines,” the memo said.