Congress passes Laken Riley Act. Bill heads to Donald Trump's desk for expected signature

WASHINGTON – In a sign of how Republicans are prioritizing cracking down on illegal immigration, both houses of Congress passed the Laken Riley Act, a bill targeting crime committed by immigrants, on Wednesday.

It will likely be the first bill President Donald Trump signs into law in his second term in office. Trump has also made immigration the focus of multiple executive orders since taking office on Monday.

The bill would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to detain people who are in the United States without legal status who are arrested, charged with or accused of certain crimes including burglary, theft, larceny and shoplifting, or assaulting a law enforcement officer.

The House approved the bill 263-156, a day after the Senate voted to approve it 64-35. The bill drew some bipartisan support. In addition to virtually all Republicans in both houses, 46 Democrats voted for it in the House and 12 voted to support it in the Senate.

That marks a shift for Democrats on immigration after their bruising defeat in the 2025 elections, during which they failed to retake the House and lost both the Senate and White House.

Democrats divided

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. Gallego told POLITICO there has been a "misunderstanding" about Latino voters' opinions on border security.

My constituents "want more Border Patrol, they want more border investments and enforcement … and they also want immigration reform," he said.

In a passionate debate ahead of the House vote Wednesday, several Democrats argued that the legislation violates civil rights by detaining people who are simply accused of a crime.

"If someone wants to point a finger and accuse someone of shoplifting, they will be rounded up and put into a private detention camp and sent out for deportation without a day in court," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y. "That is what is in this bill, a fundamental suspension of a core American value."

Research has shown that immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than citizens.

Meanwhile, Republicans cheered the legislation as a major victory. House Republicans passed the bill last year but hit a dead end in the then-Democratically controlled Senate.

"People that come across our border illegally are not Americans, and they do not have rights here," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. "That's exactly why any time they break a law, any time they cross into our country, they should be rounded up and shipped out as fast as possible."

Due process vs. detention

Due process applies to everyone in the United States regardless of immigration status, said Sarah Mehta, senior policy counsel for the ACLU.

"This bill – soon to be law – is much broader than anything we’ve ever seen," Mehta said. "It requires the detention of people who have been arrested at some point, even if it was something they didn't do."

Congress currently funds 41,500 immigration detention beds nationwide, and nearly all were occupied at the end of 2024.

ICE, the federal agency tasked with immigration enforcement in the interior, has previously raised concerns about how its 6,000 law enforcement officers nationwide can fulfill the detention mandate without additional resources. ICE agents already face a caseload of 7.6 million people in the country without legal status, most of whom are tracked through alternatives to detention, like ankle bracelets and cellphone applications that transmit their whereabouts.

The Laken Riley bill doesn't come with a funding increase.

“When all is said and done, scaling up detention operations is about increasing staffing levels and funding," said Michael Lumpkin, who served as ICE chief of staff under the Biden administration. "It takes time and money to bring on new staff.

"Congress needs to step up its game if ICE is to grow the workforce, increase detention space, and manage its detained and non-detained dockets," he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress passes Laken Riley Act, heads to President Trump's desk