The House on Tuesday passed its first bill of the new Congress — the Laken Riley Act, a strict border measure named for the 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student who was murdered last year by an illegal immigrant, NBC News has reported.
The 264-159 vote puts pressure on Senate Democrats to back the legislation when the GOP-led Senate brings it to the floor for a vote on Friday, what would have been Riley's 23rd birthday.
The legislation passed the House last year but not the Senate.
All 52 Senate Republicans are co-sponsoring the reintroduced bill, as is Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., meaning Republicans need the support of seven more Senate Democrats to reach the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.
"We welcome with open arms, any Democrat who wants to help us solve these problems, because the American people demand and deserve it," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters before the vote. "It's overdue."
The bill, which was reintroduced by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., would require ICE to take custody of illegal migrants who commit theft-related crime, while currently local law enforcement can only contact ICE when a major crime has been committed by an illegal immigrant.
The legislation also grants power to attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show their states are being harmed by the failure to implement national immigration policies, according to CBS News.
Riley's murderer had been arrested for shoplifting the week before he killed her, but he had not been kept in jail, NBC News reported.
Collins told Newsmax that if the Laken Riley Act "had been in place and been the law of the land before she got murdered, the odds are she would be alive with us today."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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