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The U.S. Home of Representatives handed laws on Tuesday focusing on undocumented immigrants for deportation in the event that they’re charged with nonviolent crimes akin to shoplifting.
The Laken Riley Act handed on a 264-159 vote, with 48 Democrats becoming a member of Republicans — together with Texas Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen. The proposed regulation now goes to the Senate on Friday, the place Republicans maintain the bulk. Republicans management 53 seats and wish seven Senate Democrats to vote in favor for the invoice to cross.
The invoice is called after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta College nursing scholar in Georgia who was killed in February 2024 by José Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan man who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by El Paso in 2022.
Months earlier than the killing, Ibarra was arrested on a shoplifting cost at a Georgia Walmart however was later launched.
Ibarra was convicted in Riley’s killing and was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole in November.
“The death of Laken Riley was a senseless and preventable tragedy, and now that her murderer is behind bars, we owe it to Laken to do everything we can to ensure any migrant who enters the country illegally and commits a crime is never given the opportunity to harm innocent Americans,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas mentioned in a press release.
Regardless that research present that current immigrants in america commit crimes at a decrease charge than U.S.-born residents, Riley’s homicide grew to become a rallying cry for conservative lawmakers to undertake stricter immigration legal guidelines.
Based on an evaluation by Alex Nowrasteh — the vice chairman for financial and social coverage research on the libertarian suppose tank Cato Institute — undocumented immigrants in Georgia are incarcerated for murder at a charge of 61 per 100,000 individuals, in comparison with 90 per 100,000 for authorized immigrants and U.S. residents.
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“The numbers indicate that illegal immigrants are not a disproportionate criminal threat, they do not increase crime rates, and extra enforcement of normal immigration laws will not lower crime rates,” Nowrasteh wrote in his evaluation.
Final yr, when an an identical invoice was launched within the Home, 37 Democrats voted in favor of the invoice, together with three Texas Democrats.
The leap in assist from Democrats this yr signifies some Democrats’ willingness to assist President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration agenda — which incorporates mass deportations of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants within the U.S.
Presently, any immigrant — together with authorized U.S. everlasting residents — who commits severe or violent crimes — akin to aggravated felonies, drug possession or drunk driving — could be arrested and finally deported. Nevertheless, the present proposal seems to widen the deportation pipeline by requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants accused of much less severe crimes akin to housebreaking, theft, larceny or shoplifting.
The proposal additionally permits state attorneys common to sue the federal authorities if federal authorities launch an immigrant who entered the U.S. illegally and later goes on to commit different crimes.
A majority of Democrats and immigrant rights teams criticized the invoice, saying that it’s an anti-immigrant proposal disguised as a public security measure.
“This is political gamesmanship at its worst, planting a trap for lawmakers by exploiting a tragedy,” mentioned Kerri Talbot, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub, a nationwide group that advocates for truthful immigration insurance policies. “This bill weaponizes the justice system to incarcerate immigrants for minor infractions, empowers extremists to rewrite immigration policy, and tears apart families who have long called this country home.”
