CNN
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The House voted Wednesday to pass a Republican-led bill requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes, delivering a quick legislative victory to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. who chose to present this measure as the first bill of the new bill. Congress.
The bill – called the Laken Riley Act – will then go to the White House for signing into law after the Senate approved the measure earlier in the week. The vote in the House was 263-156, with 46 Democrats voting in favor.
Republicans made the bill a top priority after winning the House, Senate and White House, but the bill could not have passed the Senate without support from top Democrats because Republicans do not control only a slight majority.
The bill’s passage comes as Trump has pledged to make cracking down on immigration a centerpiece of his agenda, and it gives Republicans a legislative outcome in the first week of the president’s return to the White House. But implementation of the bill faces major hurdles, as federal officials have warned lawmakers that existing resources are insufficient to enforce the law.
The fact that the bill gained significant support from Democrats indicates a notable shift for the party in the wake of Trump’s presidential victory, as Democrats in competitive states and districts say the party must do more to address voters’ concerns about immigration.
The legislation, however, exposed a divide within the party, with some Democrats calling it a common-sense measure while others said it threatened to undermine civil liberties, due process and public safety.
The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants who are in the United States illegally or without legal status if they have been charged, arrested, convicted, or admitted to committing certain criminal offenses, including theft and burglary. The Senate passed amendments to expand the list of criminal offenses covered by the bill to include assaults on law enforcement officers and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
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The legislation is named Laken Rileya 22-year-old Georgia student who was killed last year while running. An undocumented migrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in this case which relaunched a national debate on immigration and crime.
A controversial but under the radar provisions of the legislation would give state attorneys general the power to sue in federal court decisions by federal officials, including immigration judges, to release certain immigrants from detention. They could also sue to force the State Department to impose visa sanctions on countries that refuse to accept nationals eligible for deportation.
Democrats opposed to the legislation argued that it would harm public safety by allowing courts to second-guess legitimate decisions made by front-line law enforcement officers and that it could undermine the U.S. foreign policy by giving state attorneys general and federal judges too much enforcement power. visa blocking.
Although the bill has now passed Congress, there remain obstacles to its implementation.
The Laken Riley Act will require a ramp-up period and increased funding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawmakers have privately warned in recent weeks.
“Complete implementation would be impossible for ICE with existing resources,” the agency said in a memo to lawmakers this month and obtained by CNN.
The agency said its initial cost estimate of $3.2 billion to implement the law “does not represent the full cost of implementation.”
ICE is funded for 41,500 detention beds. As of early December, the agency said, more than 39,000 people were in ICE custody.
ICE estimated that it would need an additional 110,000 beds to meet the needs of the population covered by the new law, which would far exceed its current inventory.
“If additional resources are provided, a ramp-up period would be required due to implementation challenges such as hiring, detention bed availability, and procurement/acquisition timelines,” the memo states .
Trump moved quickly after being sworn in Monday to take a series of radical measures by the immigration department this included declaring a national emergency at the U.S. southern border and beginning the process to end citizenship rights, a move that has already resulted in a legal challenge.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.