Days after Donald Trump assumed office as the 47th President of the US, the Republican Party scored a major win in Congress by clearing the Laken Riley Act, which allowed the detention of undocumented immigrants arrested for violent crimes. The Laken Riley Act will become law once it is signed by the President.
It was passed by the House by a vote of 263 to 156, including 46 Democrats voting in support. The bill passed the Senate with a 64-35 vote earlier this week, with 12 Democrats supporting it.?
The bill was named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered in February 2024 by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant who entered the US illegally in 2022.
According to the Laken Riley Act, undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes should be detained. This includes theft, shoplifting, burglary, assault against law enforcement, or any crimes that result in the death "or serious bodily injury of another person."
The Laken Riley Act also empowers state attorneys general to sue in federal court over the 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 against countries that refuse to accept nationals who are eligible for deportation.
While the Laken Riley Act does not discriminate when it comes to the nationalities of those who should be detained, the law is expected to have an impact on Indians living in the US illegally. Indians are the third-largest group of undocumented immigrants in the US. According to a 2024 Pew Research report, there were approximately 725,000 Indian undocumented immigrants in the US.
Trump has promised to deport all illegal immigrants in the US, who are estimated to be around 11-14 million in number, back to their countries of origin.
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