In President Donald Trump’s first legislative victory, the US Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to a GOP-led bill to detain and deport undocumented immigrants who enter the country without documentation and are accused of certain crimes. Will be required. The bill, called the Lake Riley Act, begins the sweeping crackdown on immigration that the President has promised.
The legislation passed by a vote of 263 to 156, with 46 Democrats voting in favor, indicating a growing cross-party consensus to take a tougher stance against those entering the US illegally.
The bill is named after a 22-year-old Georgia student who was murdered during a race last year. An undocumented Venezuelan immigrant was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The convict was earlier arrested in a shop theft case but was not taken into custody. Laken Riley’s case once again sparked debate over immigration and crime in America.
Under the provisions of the bill, the Department of Homeland Security is required to detain undocumented immigrants — people who are in the U.S. illegally or without legal status — if they are charged, arrested, convicted. Has been convicted of, or admitted to, certain criminal offenses, including theft and burglary, according to a report in The New York Times.
The House of Representatives passed the bill last week after debating the changes in the Senate, where it seeks to expand the list of criminal offenses covered under the bill to include assaults on law enforcement officers and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury. Amendments were reportedly adopted for.
Republicans made the legislation their top priority after winning the government trifecta. Still, it would not have been able to achieve final passage without the support of key Democrats because Republicans control only a narrow majority.
Democrats opposing the legislation reportedly argued that the bill could undermine US foreign policy by giving state attorneys general and federal judges overly broad power regarding visa blocking. Although it has passed Congress on its way to the office of President Trump — who began his second term on Monday by issuing a series of executive orders that restricted his immigration — there are still hurdles to its implementation. Are.
According to a CNN report, the Laken Relay Act would require a ramp-up period and increased funding. “Full implementation for ICE would be impossible within existing resources,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a memo to lawmakers this month.
The agency estimates an additional 110,000 beds will be needed to support the population covered by the new act, far more than its current inventory. ICE is funded for 41,500 detention beds and as of December had more than 39,000 people in its custody.
The agency said its initial cost estimate of $3.2 billion to execute the act “does not represent the full cost of implementation.”
“If additional resources are made available, a ramp-up period will be required due to implementation challenges such as recruitment, detention bed availability, and contracting/acquisition timelines,” the memo said.
