The Laken Riley Act has more than enough votes to pass the Senate and overcome a filibuster, a procedural vote showed on Tuesday.
Dozens of Democrats joined all voting Republicans in expressing support for the bill, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold to prevent far-left senators from filibustering the bill. The legislation, named after a nursing student murdered last February by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in Georgia, mandates that federal immigration authorities detain illegal immigrants suspected of theft or related crimes. It also allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for damages resulting from illegal immigration.
The Senate is expected to take an official vote on the bill next week, with Republican leaders likely sending it to the president’s desk after Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has repeatedly pledged to strengthen border security and criticized the Biden administration for overseeing record-high illegal border crossings.
Only eight Democrats, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), voted against the act. Six senators did not vote.
The bipartisan move comes two days after the Republican-majority House passed the act, with all voting Republicans and 48 Democrats in favor. The bill first passed in the House last March with a bipartisan vote of 251-170 but was blocked by the then-Democrat-controlled Senate.
Jose Ibarra, who has been sentenced to life in prison for Riley’s murder, entered the United States illegally through El Paso in September 2022. Ibarra was released on parole just one day after being taken into custody. Months later, he murdered Riley.
Sen. Katie Britt (R., Ala.), one of the bill’s main sponsors, described Riley’s death as “the direct consequence of willful open border policies” from the Biden administration.
“The American people did not just deliver a mandate on November 5th, they delivered a verdict,” Britt said. “They made it clear they want to remove criminal illegal aliens and protect American families.”
House Republicans have recently introduced several other border-security measures, including proposals to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, allocate resources to resume border wall construction, and relocate the Customs and Border Protection headquarters closer to the southern border.
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