The Laken Riley Act was signed by President Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon as part of a set of measures aimed at addressing his primary objective of reducing illegal immigration.
The law, which is ostensibly the first bill Trump signed during his second term, mandates that federal authorities hold undocumented immigrants who are charged with crimes, including a number of misdemeanors, with the possibility of deportation—even before they are found guilty.
Trump ran a campaign centered on reducing illegal immigration, using the death of Riley, a nursing student, as a focal point for immigration reform. The Republican wish list item was passed with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
“We will deport individuals based on the laws of this country. That’s all this administration is trying to do enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated.
“So if an individual is here illegally, if that means they cross our southern border illegally or they are overstaying their visa illegally or they’ve been deported before and returned to the U.S. illegally, which we found in many instances, they will be subject to deportation,” she continued.
The White House has maintained that if someone is in the country illegally, they have committed a crime. Leavitt stated on Tuesday, “And if you are an individual, a foreign national, who illegally enters the United States of America, you are, by definition, a criminal.”
The bill suggests that authorities should detain those who are both in the country illegally and have been charged with a crime.
Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant who was initially detained in September 2022 on suspicion of unlawful entrance, assassinated Riley, the bill’s namesake, outside of Atlanta in February 2024. Prior to the 2024 elections, her passing exacerbated the immigration controversy.
“With today’s action, her name will also live forever in the laws of our country,” Trump stated prior to signing the bill. “And this is a very important law. This is something that has brought Democrats and Republicans together. That’s not easy to do.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin stated that the bill “authorizes the largest expansion of mandatory detention seen in decades for anyone even suspected or accused of shoplifting.” Despite the fact that a number of Democrats supported the proposal, many have complained it is too harsh.
She added in a statement that the bill might cause Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “Not only is this incredibly cruel and inhumane, it is also contrary to our legal system’s bedrock principle that all individuals are innocent until proven guilty, and thereby wholly un-American. To prioritize indefinitely detaining people accused of petty shoplifting instead of going after suspected terrorists and violent offenders that pose a more urgent threat to the safety of our communities.”
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Additionally, the bill permits states to sue DHS for harm allegedly caused to residents by illegal immigration and permits attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can demonstrate that states are suffering as a result of the federal government’s failure to implement immigration rules.
But according to a document, ICE has cautioned that the bill’s enforcement will cost far higher than the $3.2 billion first anticipated, potentially reaching $27 billion in its first year.
The study stated that ICE would need to increase its detention capacity to 151,500 in order to fully implement the plan within its current resources.
“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 stated.
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In his first week in office, Trump also signed ten executive orders aimed at reducing illegal immigration, and on Tuesday, newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem participated in an immigration enforcement operation in New York City that led to the arrest of multiple undocumented migrants.
Additionally, Trump announced on Wednesday that he would sign an executive order allowing the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to use Guantanamo Bay as a facility for migrants.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he stated. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back. So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”
