President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on Wednesday, putting his signature on legislation that will require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants who are accused of theft and other crimes.
The new law is the first that Trump has signed in his second term.
“The Laken Riley Act will become the very first bill that I proudly sign into law as the 47th president of the United States,” Trump said during a signing ceremony at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. “This is a very important law.”
The Laken Riley Act requires the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, to detain undocumented immigrants arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting. The bill is named for 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed last year by a man who was in the country illegally.
The Laken Riley Act passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support earlier this month. It also had the bipartisan support of a majority of Arizona’s Capitol Hill delegation.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., co-sponsored the bill. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., voted for the legislation. In the House, all six of Arizona’s Republican lawmakers voted for the bill. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., voted for the measure, while Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., voted against it. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., did not vote.
The new law will mandate that migrants arrested for theft-related crimes are detained until they are removed from the U.S., according to Gallego’s office. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs praised Gallego’s decision to co-sponsor the bill.
“Arizonans know the real-life consequences of today’s border crisis,” Gallego said in a written statement. “We must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law, to prevent situations like what occurred to Laken Riley. I will continue to fight for the safety of Arizonans by pushing for comprehensive immigration reform and increased border security.”
Riley’s killing drew national attention last year. José Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented migrant from Venezuela, was found guilty of murdering Riley on the University of Georgia campus. Ibarra was sentenced in November to life in prison.
Trump
Riley’s family last year and hosted them at a presidential campaign rally in Georgia. Her family attended the bill signing at the White House on Wednesday.
“It’s a tremendous tribute to your daughter, what’s taking place today. That’s all I can say, but so sad we have to be doing it at all,” Trump said. “America will never, ever forget Laken Hope Riley.”
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, gave an emotional speech at the ceremony.
“There’s no amount of change that will ever bring back our precious Laken,” Phillips said. “Our hope moving forward is that her life saves lives.”
The bill has faced criticism from some groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
ACLU senior border policy counsel Sarah Mehta called it an “extreme and reactive bill that will authorize the largest expansion of mandatory detention we have seen in decades.”
“We mourn Laken Riley’s murder and we are relieved that her killer has been arrested, tried, and sentenced. This bill, however, exploits one person’s horrific crime to put millions of our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers at risk of unjust mandatory detention and deportation,” a group of 200 Arizona Democrats wrote in a letter directed to Kelly, Gallego, Stanton and Hobbs.
Trump said he also intends to sign an executive order to prepare a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday. Immigration experts have raised questions about how Trump will accomplish his mass deportation goals with the federal government’s existing resources like beds, border agents and planes.
“We need Congress to provide full funding for the complete and total restoration of our sovereign borders, as well as financial support to remove record numbers of illegal aliens,” Trump said. “We’re shipping all these people back where they came from.”
