The Laken Riley Act is On Its Way to Trump’s Desk

On Monday the Senate passed an amended version of the Laken Riley Act. That meant the bill had to go back to the House so the revised version could be passed there as well. That happened today with 48 Democrats joining the Republicans.

The House vote was 263-156, with 46 Democrats joining all Republicans in support of the measure. The bill passed the Senate on Monday by a vote of 64-35, winning 12 Democratic votes…

The Laken Riley Act, written by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., would require ICE to take custody of and detain undocumented immigrants who are charged, arrested or convicted of committing acts of “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.”

“It’s bittersweet,” Collins said after the vote, adding that he had spoken to Riley’s family earlier in the day. “For a young lady that wanted to dedicate her career and her life to saving lives, now her name will live on forever and it will save lives.”

So it’s now headed to Trump’s desk for signature and that could happen tonight or tomorrow. Politically, this is a big win for Trump but also it has been a big mess for Democrats who are deeply divided between moderates in red states and border states and progressives who have been opposing this bill since the House passed a version of it last year.

Dozens of Democrats in the House and a smaller but critical bloc in the Senate joined the G.O.P. in pushing the legislation to the brink of enactment, culminating in a test vote on Friday that cleared the final hurdle to its passage.

It was an outcome that exposed major divisions among Democrats about how to position themselves on immigration, and foreshadowed the immense challenge of maintaining unity on a pressing topic that Mr. Trump has made his signature issue. After years of opposing Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda at every turn, some Democrats — particularly those who are looking toward potentially tough re-election campaigns — appear to have concluded that “hell no” is not a winning strategy, at least not in every case…

“There was a blinding flash of common sense,” Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a cosponsor of the bill, said this week when asked why he thought more people in his party were lining up to support it. “I never suggested that it necessarily is a perfect bill, but I think it’s an appropriate one, and I think it’s a necessary one.”

There may have been a blinding flash of common sense but it only seems to apply to a minority of elected Democrats. Most of them still haven’t learned their lesson despite the clear indication that voters are sick of their open border politics.

According to NBC News exit polls, immigration ranked as the fourth-biggest concern among voters in the 2024 election, and those Americans voted for Trump over Democratic rival Kamala Harris 89% to 9%. Trump also gained significant ground among Latino voters generally and won Latino men outright, exit polls showed.

Blue state voters apparently haven’t learned their lesson either despite more than a year of Texas sending buses full of migrants to major cities like Denver, Chicago and New York. All of those places are now on the hook for tens of millions, even billions of dollars in spending to manage the crisis Democrats (and especially Joe Biden) created. Ironically, this will probably stop being an issue for blue states and the Democratic Party over the next four years thanks to Republicans that none of those folks voted for. Don’t expect a thank you, just more tiresome lectures.