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Politics|Congress Clears Measure to Deport Immigrants Accused of Crimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/us/politics/laken-riley-act.html
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Final approval by the House sent the legislation, which requires the detention and deportation of unauthorized migrants charged with crimes, to President Trump’s desk.
- Jan. 22, 2025, 5:36 p.m. ET
The House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would require the detention and deportation of migrants who enter the country without authorization and are charged with certain crimes, making it the first bill to clear the new Congress and head to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
The final vote, 263 to 156, capped the opening salvo in a broader Trump-era crackdown on immigration and undocumented migrants that the president has promised, Republicans have championed, and a small but increasing group of Democrats has begun to embrace. Forty-six House Democrats joined all Republicans in backing it, a sign of the growing cross-party consensus around taking a harder line against those who enter the country illegally.
The bill is all but certain to be quickly signed by Mr. Trump, who on Monday started his second term by issuing a raft of executive orders that kicked off his immigration crackdown, clamping down on both legal and illegal entries into the United States.
Wednesday’s measure, titled the Laken Riley Act, is named for a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed last year by a migrant from Venezuela who crossed into the United States illegally. The man had previously been arrested in a shoplifting case but had not been detained.
The House gave its blessing after the Senate spent last week debating changes to the bill, exposing deep divisions among Democrats over immigration. Some Democrats have moved to the right on the issue after their party’s electoral losses in November, arguing that they must embrace basic steps to punish unlawfulness, even if they disagree with some of the details. But others pushed back forcefully on the bill, saying it would deprive accused criminals of due process, a fundamental principle of the criminal justice system, and was aimed mostly at demonizing unauthorized immigrants.
The act instructs federal officials to detain unauthorized immigrants arrested for or charged with burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, or crimes that result in death or serious bodily injury, expanding the list of charges that would subject migrants to immediate detention and potential deportation.
