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U.S.|House Passes Bill to Deport Immigrants Convicted of Violence Against Women
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/house-bill-deport-immigrants.html
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Scores of Democrats joined Republicans in approving the measure, even though existing law already allows immigrants with contested legal status who are convicted of sex crimes to be deported.
Jan. 16, 2025Updated 12:52 p.m. ET
The House passed a bill on Thursday to mandate deportation and block entry into the United States for immigrants with uncertain status who are convicted of or admit to sex crimes or domestic violence, as a bipartisan majority approved the latest piece of a step-by-step crackdown being imposed by Republicans.
G.O.P. leaders on Capitol Hill have been hammering at the issue of stricter immigration enforcement in the first days of the new Congress as a way to show how they will use their governing trifecta in Washington when President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office on Monday. They are also testing how far they can push Democrats to the right on the issue after their defeats in the 2024 election.
So far, the strategy appears to be working. The bill targeting immigrants convicted of violent crimes against women passed on Thursday by a vote of 274 to 145, with 61 Democrats joining all Republicans in backing the legislation. Last year, 51 Democrats voted to back the bill.
That was the case even though the bill approved on Thursday in many ways duplicates existing law. Immigrants with contested legal status who are found guilty of rape, sexual assault or domestic violence can already be removed under current law, which calls for deportations for those committing “crimes involving moral turpitude.”
The legislation was one of a series of narrow immigration bills that passed the House in the last Congress but died in the Democrat-led Senate, including measures to deport migrants accused of minor crimes, require proof of citizenship to vote, and deny funding to cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agencies.
House Republicans kicked off the year by bringing up a bill to require that immigrants accused of theft be detained and potentially deported, which won bipartisan support. It then headed to the Senate, which appears poised to pass it in the coming days, just as Mr. Trump returns to the White House.
