WASHINGTON – Ten U.S. Senate Democrats provided the votes needed on Friday to advance a bill requiring authorities to detain migrants who entered the country illegally if they are suspected of theft.
Days before President-elect Donald Trump returns to power, the Senate voted 61-35 to limit debate on the “Laken Riley Act,” named after a Georgia college student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man previously arrested for shoplifting who entered the country illegally. With 10 Democrats voting in favor, allowing the bill to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.
The vote sets the stage for passage as soon as next week.
Trump campaigned on a promise to crack down on illegal immigration and “migrant crime.” A range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Nonetheless, immigration and border security were top issues on voters’ minds in last November’s presidential and congressional elections.
Of the 10 Democrats who voted to advance the legislation, four are up for re-election in 2026, with two from states Trump won last November. They are Gary Peters of Michigan and Jon Ossoff of Georgia.
All four Democratic senators from Arizona and Nevada, which also voted for Trump in 2024, supported the measure. Immigration concerns are particularly heightened in the southwest border state of Arizona.
Several Democrats who tried to stop the bill expressed concerns that immigrants suspected of a crime but never charged could fall victim, as well as U.S.-born children of immigrant parents. Those children are U.S. citizens.
On Jan. 9, the House of Representatives voted 264-159 to pass the bill, with 48 Democrats supporting it.
Figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement released on Thursday estimated the legislation would require 110,000 additional beds beyond the 41,500 funded in the last fiscal year. When counting additional transportation, staffing and other expenditures, it would cost $26.9 million annually at its peak.
This is the first step in Republicans’ immigration and border security efforts. A far broader set of changes to existing law is expected to be unveiled sometime this year.
It remained unclear whether Republicans would try to advance a wide-ranging bill unilaterally or with some Democratic support.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said there was a possibility of such bipartisanship on immigration and border security. But Republicans might seek a measure far stricter than Democrats could embrace. If so, they would attempt to use a special procedure to circumvent the need for supermajority support in the Senate.
Trump has talked about mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, while some of his supporters have espoused the eventual elimination of all immigration into the U.S.
