The Senate passed the Laken Riley Act hours after President Trump was sworn into office Monday — a move that would pave the way for US officials to detain illegal migrants who engage in theft-related offenses.
Senators voted 64 to 35 to green-light the measure, which is named after Laken Riley, a former Georgia nursing student who was bludgeoned to death at 22 while out on a jog in February. Twelve Democrats joined their GOP counterparts in backing the bill.
Riley was strangled and beaten to death by a Tren de Aragua gang member and illegal migrant who had previously been released back into the US even after multiple arrests, including for theft.
The Senate bill will now get sent back to the House of Representatives, which must vote on it again because it was slightly revised in the upper chamber.
The House is expected to pass the tweaked bill, which it is set to be one of the first pieces of legislation that Trump, 78, then signs into law as he prepares a major border crackdown.
The Laken Riley Act specifically targets illegal immigrants who committed “burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting,” because of the circumstances surrounding Riley’s death.
She was murdered by Venezuelan prison-gang member Jose Ibarra, who was convicted in her killing last year and sentenced to life in prison.
Months before the brutal slaying, Ibarra, 26, made a court appearance for a Georgia shoplifting charge.
Ibarra had other past run-ins with law enforcement as well, including an arrest for child endangerment after zipping through Queens on a moped with his wife’s son holding on, officials previously told The Post.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later revealed that he was not held following his New York arrest because he was set free before the officials could get a detainer.
Immigration officials have said Ibarra illegally crossed the southern border into El Paso, Texas, on Sept. 8, 2022, before being freed due to a lack of detention space.
Riley’s brutal death had become a rallying cry against former President Joe Biden’s border policies due to critics’ beliefs that it would have been prevented if immigration law had been enforced.
The bill is designed to prevent a repeat.
Under the measure, states can sue the Homeland Security secretary if the feds fail to adequately enforce immigration law.
Republicans have been teeing up a raft of “low-hanging fruit” type legislation, such as this act, for Trump to sign into law.
Trump is also poised to issue a flurry of executive orders targeting the border crisis and immigration policy.
