WASHINGTON: The House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would require the detention and deportation of migrants who enter the country without authorisation and are charged with certain crimes, making it the first bill to clear the new Congress and head to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
The final vote, 263-156, capped the opening salvo in a broader Trump-era crackdown on immigration and migrants in the country illegally that the president has promised, Republicans have championed, and a small but increasing group of Democrats has begun to embrace. Forty-six Democrats joined all Republicans in backing it, a sign of the growing cross-party consensus around taking a harder line against those who enter the US illegally.
The bill is all but certain to be quickly signed by Trump, who on Monday started his second term by issuing a raft of executive orders that kicked off his immigration crackdown, clamping down on both legal and illegal entries into the US. Wednesday’s measure, titled Laken Riley Act, is named for a Georgia nursing student (22) who was killed last year by a migrant from Venezuela who crossed into the US illegally. The man had previously been arrested in a shoplifting case but had not been detained.
The House gave its blessing after the Senate spent last week debating changes to the bill, exposing deep divisions among Democrats over immigration. Some Democrats have moved to the right on the issue after their party’s electoral losses in Nov, arguing that they must embrace basic steps to punish unlawfulness, even if they disagree with some of the details. But others pushed back forcefully on the bill, saying it would deprive accused criminals of due process, a fundamental principle of the criminal justice system, and was aimed mostly at demonising immigrants.
The act instructs federal officials to detain immigrants lacking permanent legal status arrested for or charged with burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, or crimes that result in death or serious bodily injury, expanding the list of charges that would subject migrants to immediate detention and potential deportation.
