President Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act into law, marking his first legislative victory since he returned to the White House after he campaigned on immigration and the border during his 2024 campaign.
The bill passed the House last week in a 263-156 vote, with 46 Democrats supporting it after the Senate approved the measure in a bipartisan 64-35 vote.
The bill requires the detention of a broad swath of migrants without legal status, including those permitted to enter the U.S. to seek asylum, if they have been accused of theft, burglary or shoplifting.
Some Democrats were in attendance at the White House for the bill signing, including Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) who co-sponsored the legislation in the upper chamber.
The president ran on targeting migrants who have committed crimes as one of his major campaign issues, which resonated with voters who wanted a crackdown on immigration.
The new law is named for Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed by a Venezuelan migrant who was arrested for shoplifting ahead of the attack after he was paroled into the country.
Critics took issue with a provision in the bill requiring a person be detained after being charged for a crime, rather than after they are convicted. House GOP lawmakers first cleared the bill in March, less than a month after Riley was killed, but Democrats controlled Senate at the time.
When the House approved the legislation again earlier this year, the Republican-controlled Senate took up a version of the bill that added amendments to include the assault of a law enforcement officer to the list of offenses that would lead to detainment and to include the detainment of migrants without legal status charged with crimes causing death or serious bodily injury.
Trump often spoke about Riley’s case on the campaign trail and her death became a flashpoint in politics over the election cycle, with Republicans blaming the Biden administration’s immigration efforts. When a Georgia judge in November charged Jose Ibarra, a 26 year old migrant from Venezuela, for killing Riley, Trump weighed in and called the verdict “justice.”
“The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes,” the president, who had won the election days earlier, said at the time.
Trump kept his promises on the campaign trail to target migrants, especially those who have committed crimes in the U.S. through a flurry of executive orders on day one of his return to the White House.
Signing the Laken Riley law is part of Trump’s early moves on immigration. His executive orders have put a pause on refugee admissions, reinstated a program pairing local law enforcement with immigration agents, and declared a national emergency, clearing the way for greater use of active-duty military along the southern border and funneling resources to help build the border wall.
He also signed an order that deems migration an “invasion” and seeks to end asylum processing by deeming migrants a public health and national security threat.
