President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on Wednesday, marking the first law enacted during his second term.
The act requires members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain any illegal immigrant who is arrested, charged or convicted with burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. In passing the bill, the Senate also added two acts to the list of offenses that force ICE to act: assault of a law enforcement officer and acts causing death or injury.
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The act is named for Laken Riley, a University of Georgia student who was killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who entered the country illegally in 2022. Ibarra was sentenced in November of 2024 to life in prison for the murder.
The bill passed by a vote of 263-156 in the House. All GOP members of the House who voted were in favor of passing the bill, while 156 Democrats voted against it. Before that, the bill passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 64-35, where the yes votes included 12 Democratic senators.
The act was signed as President Trump has touted stepped-up deportations of migrants in the U.S. illegally.
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