The United States House of Representatives voted 263-156 to pass the Laken Riley Act, a Republican-led immigration detention measure named after a 22-year-old nursing school student who was murdered in 2024 by an undocumented migrant.
The measure, approved by the Senate on Monday, is expected to be the first bill signed by President Donald Trump following his return to the White House. The legislation expands mandatory detention to include noncitizens who have been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or have admitted to burglary, larceny, theft, or shoplifting. The Senate amended the bill, expanding it to include the assault of a law enforcement officer and crimes that result in the death "or serious bodily injury of another person" as additional causes for mandatory detention.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supposedly warned lawmakers earlier this week that the bill would require "a ramp-up period and a boost in funding," CNN reported, citing a memo it obtained. "Full implementation would be impossible for ICE to execute within existing resources," the memo from ICE said, according to the news agency.
