The Senate voted Friday to end debate on a bill named for murdered jogger Laken Riley that would help federal authorities crack down on illegal immigrants who steal or brawl with cops — and let states sue the Homeland Security secretary if the culprits don’t end up in custody.
Lawmakers voted 61-35 to break the filibuster on the Laken Riley Act, which orders the arrest, detention and deportation of migrants who commit “burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.”
A vote on final passage will take place Monday at 5:30 p.m., following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony.
Ten Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the cloture motion, a few of whom face potentially tough re-election races two years from now in states that Trump won in 2024, including Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Gary Peters of Michigan.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who also voted for cloture, is also up for re-election in 2026, though it’s unclear whether she will seek a fourth term in office.
A Venezuelan gang member murdered Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, in Athens, Ga. in February 2024, two months after he had appeared in a state court on charges of shoplifting.
The Tren de Aragua soldier, Jose Ibarra, had also evaded apprehension by federal authorities in New York City earlier in 2023.
“That’s what we’re trying to do here, is prevent another tragedy,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in a Friday floor speech.
“Unfortunately, it seems that even a simple and straightforward bill to detain criminal illegal immigrants is too much for some on the left. Some of our Democrat colleagues have spent the week searching for a reason — any reason — to justify voting against this bill.”
That opposition charges the measure is too sweeping in its detention requirements, putting strain on DHS and its subagencies to hold tens of thousands more migrants charged with crimes.
“Once again, this is not an argument against the bill. It’s an argument for giving ICE more resources and for quickly deporting criminals,” Thune noted. “These arguments say a lot more about Democrats’ unwillingness to crack down on illegal immigration than they say about this bill.”
“Laken Riley’s death was a tragedy — and it was preventable,” the top Republican said.
The House passed a companion version of the bill earlier this month, but will have to take up and vote through the Senate version before it can move on to Trump’s desk for a signature.
On Wednesday evening, an amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sailed through in a 70-25 vote, with 20 Democrats and every Republican supporting language to lock up migrants who fight with police or commit “any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person.”
“Two days ago, 25 of our Democrat colleagues could not even bring themselves to support detaining an illegal immigrant who assaults a police officer,” Thune said Friday. “That’s right. More than half of the Democrats in the United States Senate apparently don’t believe we should have to detain these individuals.”
The full bill, which passed a series of Senate procedural hurdles over the past week, also permits state attorneys general to sue the head of the Department of Homeland Security for failing to remove migrants charged with theft crimes.
All but 10 Democrats voted for an earlier procedural motion to consider amendments — but the only provision put forward by their party to cut out authorization for state lawsuits failed along party lines.
“Unfortunately, without more changes to address deficiencies in the bill, I’ll be voting ‘no,’” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared Friday.
Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who offered the amendment that failed, John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not vote on the cloture motion Friday.
Fetterman quarterbacked the legislation with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). McConnell was absent earlier this month from a certification vote for the 2024 election after suffering a fall that cut his face and sprained his wrist in December.
The measure passed the House earlier this month, with 216 Republicans and 48 Democrats voting it through, making the bill likely to be the first legislation to hit Trump’s desk next week.
Ibarra, 26, who was convicted of Riley’s murder and sentenced to life in prison last November, was arrested in the Big Apple on child endangerment charges after zipping around Queens on a moped with his wife’s five-year-old son in August 2023, law enforcement sources previously told The Post.
ICE officers revealed that they hadn’t issued a detainer request for the Venezuelan gangster before he was released from NYPD custody.
They also disclosed that Ibarra had illegally crossed the southern border into El Paso, Texas on Sept. 8, 2022, before being released due to insufficient detention space.
According to Fox News, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) received a letter from ICE this week claiming that the agency will need $3 billion more in funding to provide 60,000 extra detention beds to comply with the law.
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