The House of Representatives approved this Wednesday a law that gives the green light to immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrants who commit robberies and other minor crimes, and thus became the first law that President Donald Trump will sign in his second term.
The initiative was approved today in the plenary session of the House with 262 votes in favor, including those of the Republican caucus and 46 Democratic legislators, compared to 156 votes against.
The legislative proposal had previously passed its first parliamentary process on Monday, when it was approved in the Senate with 64 votes in favor (including 12 from Democratic senators) and 35 against.
The regulation is named after Laken Riley, a nursing student murdered in Georgia in 2024. José Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant, was found guilty of this crime.
The arrests covered by this law include petty thefts in supermarkets or stores. The detainees will be placed in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
The text will also authorize the attorneys general of the states of the country to intervene in the immigration policy decisions of the federal government. Among the new powers, they will be allowed to force the State Department to no longer grant visas to citizens of countries that do not accept deportations from the United States.
The proposal, whose author is Georgia Republican Congressman Mike Collins, has been criticized by immigration law experts and activists, who point out that it violates due process and paves the way for the plans for mass deportations of migrants that the new president has promised. President, Donald Trump.
According to American media calculations, The Government would need to spend more than an additional $3 billion in budget and increase migrant detention capacity to more than 60,000 beds to be able to execute that law.
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