The first vote of the new Congress was on a bill to crack down on unauthorized immigrants. And more than a fifth of Democrats joined Republicans to support it.
The Laken Riley Act passed the House on Tuesday in a 264-159 vote, with 48 Democratic supporters. As the first vote of the session, it sent a message about what Republicans want to do with unified control of Congress — and whether Democrats will unify against Donald Trump’s agenda or go along with it.
The bill, named after a Georgia college student who was killed by an undocumented immigrant last year, passed in the House last session but garnered 11 more Democratic votes this time around. Seven Democrats who previously opposed or didn’t vote for the bill voted for it this time, including Reps. Ritchie Torres and Jared Moskowitz.
“The people in America are concerned about the border, and we have to work together to address the problems at the border, especially when it comes to criminals,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, who supported the bill.
“I think certainly there were flaws in the bill, and I think it was possibly a messaging bill,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam said. “But I generally supported the bill. I thought it had more good than bad.”
The bill would require the detention of unauthorized immigrants charged with theft or burglary even if they had not been convicted and would otherwise be released. It also allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they determine their state has been harmed by a failure to enforce national immigration policies. The man who killed Riley had previously been arrested for shoplifting and then released. Riley’s murder became a flash point in the immigration debate and was frequently mentioned by Trump during his campaign.
Democrats who opposed the bill said they were concerned about due process, noting it could lead to the detention of people later found innocent.
“It’s a complete violation of due process. What it says is, if a 12-year-old is out with friends and he’s a DACA [recipient] and he gets arrested, but charges are dropped, he’s up for deportation,” Rep. Delia Ramirez said. “What happened to [Riley] was an absolute deplorable act and tragedy, but this bill is not going to fix it.”
“We often see that people use the smoke screen of immigration policy to justify mass rollbacks on civil rights for all Americans,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “What we are seeing in terms of the gutting of due process in this bill, I do not believe is just reserved only for immigrants, and so often the rhetoric and the conversation around immigrants is just used to trick Americans into sacrificing their own civil rights.”
The vote comes as progressives have expressed concern about the tack the broader party is taking when it comes to the undocumented.
“I understand that people are going to take the votes that they’re going to take, but to get to a more rational and truth-based immigration debate, I think we have to actually fix that issue out in the public and make sure folks understand that Democrats are going to stand up for your safety and are going to stand up for a fair immigration system,” Rep. Greg Casar said. “We have to break through the Trump lies out in the public.”
The bill will now go to the Senate, where it will need eight Democrats to join Republicans in favor this week. It likely has at least four: Sen. John Fetterman is a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Elissa Slotkin voted in favor of the bill last year when they were serving as House members, and Sen. Gary Peters reportedly said he would vote in favor.
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized a group of seven Democrats who voted for the bill Tuesday. They had either opposed or did not vote on the bill last year.
Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.