The US House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, sending the proposal to Donald Trump’s desk and giving the new president his first legislative victory as he presses his hardline immigration agenda on multiple fronts. The House vote was 263 to 158, with 46 Democrats joining every present Republican in supporting the Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan national who was in the US unlawfully. The House vote came two days after the US Senate passed the legislation in a vote of 64 to 35, with a dozen Democratic members backing the bill, the Guardian reports. Under the bill, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would be required to detain undocumented immigrants charged with crimes such as “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting”. It would also allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believed their states had been harmed by its failure to enforce immigration laws. The House vote followed a heated hour-long floor debate, in which Democrats argued that the measure would “do nothing to fix the immigration crisis in America” and would instead result in racial profiling and fear-mongering. Republicans countered that the measure would save lives.
Senator Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican and leading sponsor of the legislation, hailed it as the “most significant immigration enforcement and border security related bill” to be passed by Congress in decades. The measure does not include any new funding, even though US Immigration and Customs Enforcement warned lawmakers earlier this month that the agency did not have the existing resources to implement it. The notable bipartisan support for the bill underscores the pressure some Democrats are under to move to the right on immigration after Republicans narrowly won the White House and both chambers of Congress in November. But progressives laced into Democrats, accusing the party of “caving” to Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. “Reinforcing Republicans’ anti-immigrant messaging and handing them political wins without a fight is not a plan,” said Mari Urbina, managing director of the progressive group, Indivisible. Immigrant rights and civil rights groups have expressed additional concerns about how the bill could undermine federal authority and empower Trump to carry out his plan for a mass-deportation program, with opponents arguing that it ignores the principle that someone charged with a crime has not been convicted and is entitled to due process.
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