Laken Riley Act: Lightning-rod immigration bill set to go to Trump's desk after House passage

WASHINGTON -- The House passed an amended version of the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday on a vote of 263-156, teeing up major immigration reform at the start of President Donald Trump's second administration. Forty-six Democrats joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill, breaking with Democratic leadership.

The bill, which was expected to pass two weeks after it initially passed the bill, will now go to Trump's desk and symbolically will become the first measure he signs into law of his second administration.

The updated measure, which cleared the Senate with some Democratic support on Tuesday, requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants for theft-related crimes and includes amendments from Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst that expanded the scope of offenses that trigger detention.

The death of Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was murdered by Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant, on Feb. 22, 2024, fueled the immigration debate in the United States and became a lightning rod issue for Trump on the campaign trail. Ibarra had illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 but was allowed to stay in the U.S. while his case was ongoing, and he had been charged with misdemeanor shoplifting while living in Georgia.

The legislation will require immigration officers to detain undocumented immigrants who are suspected of minor criminal offenses, including shoplifting. It also grants power to attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show their states are being harmed over failure to implement national immigration policies, as well as allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to citizens allegedly due to illegal immigration.

"We're putting the safety and security of Americans first with this commonsense piece of legislation, so it's a big deal," Alabama Sen. Katie Britt said Wednesday. "Whether it's from fentanyl overdoses or whether it is the tragedy that occurred to Laken Riley or Rachel Morin or Jocelyn Nungaray or its countless number of people -- today, we said we hear you to the American people."

The bill, a major Republican-driven initiative, originally cleared the House on a vote of 264-159 on Jan. 7, with 48 Democrats joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill. The amended version then passed the Senate, the first bill to pass in the chamber this session, on Tuesday on a vote of 64-35, with support from 12 Democrats, which resulted in the new bill going back to the House for final approval.

"Illegal migrants shouldn't be here in the first place," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said on the Senate floor leading up to a vote on the bill. "Everybody knows that it is against the law to enter the United States without our permission. Even so, if they come here violating our law, they hurt and kill an American, the federal government must prioritize their detention and deportation."

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Cornyn's amendment, which adds assault of a law enforcement officer to the list of crimes that would mandate detention of an undocumented migrant, passed with substantial Democratic support, 70-25.

The bill previously passed the House in the last Congress but was not taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"Chuck Schumer made it clear that in a Democrat Senate, they had no desire to stand up for women who were assaulted by people here illegally," House Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of the vote Wednesday. "Joe Biden would not have signed that bill, but now with John Thune, you have the same House majority, but you now have a willing partner in the Senate that actually wants to confront real problems facing families so that you don't have more Laken Riley, you don't have more murders of innocent people because of an open border."

ICE estimated enforcement of the bill will cost close to $27 billion in its first year, according to a document obtained by ABC News, up from a previous estimate of $3.2 billion.

ICE has said a lack of cooperation from local and state law enforcement officials may make their jobs more difficult and that going after people for property crimes might prevent them from targeting "more egregious offenders."

After a recent review of immigrants in their non-detained docket, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations found about 110,000 people with offenses referenced in the act, the document said. That's up from its original count of over 60,000.

To enforce the law, ICE would need to expand detention capacity to 151,500 beds. It is currently only funded to have 41,500 beds.

"Full implementation would be impossible for ICE to execute within existing resources," the document noted.

"This bill comes with an astronomical price tag and will create more problems than it solves," said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat. "It will make our immigration system more chaotic and our country less safe. 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."

On Tuesday, 13 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Thune committing to working with Republicans in "good faith" toward providing the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to pass certain immigration and border security measures.

"We can solve big challenges when we work together, and there is much work to do to improve border security, protect Dreamers and farmworkers, and fix our immigration system to better reflect the needs of our country and our modern economy," the Democrats wrote. "These issues require bipartisan cooperation and we stand ready to work with you to develop meaningful and long-lasting solutions to these important issues that have gone unaddressed for far too long under both Democratic and Republican-controlled government."

Of the 13 who signed the letter, 10 voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act. Those votes were necessary in helping that bill hit the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

ABC News' Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.