Senate advances Laken Riley Act to crack down on illegal immigration in bipartisan vote

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to begin debate on the Laken Riley Act, clearing a key hurdle to advance a Republican-led bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration that has garnered significant support from Democrats.

With a vote of 84-9, the bill easily cleared the 60-vote threshold to advance in GOP-controlled Senate. But many Democrats have suggested they want to amend the bill, so it’s unclear whether it will receive enough support for final passage.

“This is an important issue. We should have a debate and amendments,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a floor speech before he voted to proceed with debate. “To remind my colleagues, this is not a vote on the bill itself. It is a motion to proceed, a vote that says we should have a debate and should have amendments.”

The openness from some Democrats to supporting the legislation comes as the party recalibrates its outlook on immigration after getting pummeled over the issue politically. In the 2024 election, voters trusted President-elect Donald Trump over Kamala Harris to handle immigration by a margin of 9 points, NBC News exit polls found. And voters who cited immigration as a top issue backed Trump over Harris 89% to 9%, according to exit polls.

The Laken Riley Act would change federal law to require ICE, operating under the Department of Homeland Security, to take custody of people in the country illegally and detain them over theft-related crimes. It would target people who are charged, arrested or convicted for committing an act of “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting,” according to the bill text.

The legislation would also empower state attorneys general to sue the federal government for alleged failures of immigration enforcement “if the State or its residents experience harm, including financial harm in excess of $100.”

Some Democrats who represent competitive states or border communities have endorsed the bill outright, including Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Elissa Slotkin; D-Mich., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.

“Sen. Ossoff supports the Laken Riley Act and plans to vote for it,” a spokesperson for the Georgia senator, who is up for re-election in 2026, said Thursday in a statement.

The bill, the first of the new Congress that was sworn in last week, was named for the 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student who was murdered in 2024 by an immigrant in the United States illegally; she would have turned 23 on Friday.

It passed the GOP-led House 264-159 earlier this week, with 48 Democrats voting for it. In the Senate, Republicans have 53 seats and — with full attendance — would need at least seven Democrats next week to ensure final passage of the legislation as written.

One school of thought among Democrats is that the existing bill is poorly written but can be salvaged with amendments.

“I think there’s an opportunity to get on the bill and try to try to amend it to be better,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “The underlying bill looks like a not well constructed piece of legislation. But we could potentially make it better.”

According to one Senate aide, Democrats are considering amending the language of the bill to narrow the threshold for what triggers ICE detention of an undocumented person. Currently, it covers anyone who “is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense.”

“Getting it to a better place, I think, to make people feel more comfortable that like this really is just going to target the people doing bad s—, and not used in a potentially nefarious way,” the aide said, while emphasizing that Democrats intend to “engage in a serious way” to improve it, not make “pie in the sky” asks.

The Senate Democratic aide said the party has been willing to engage on tougher border laws for a while, saying, “This is where voters continue to move, and good elected officials continue to listen to them.”

If the Senate does add amendments to the bill, it would have to go back to the House for final passage. If the legislation is not amended, it’s not yet clear it will have enough votes to pass.

Some pro-immigration advocates are calling on Democrats to strip out the provision empowering state attorneys general to sue the federal government, warning that it will be exploited by bad actors.

“If they want to prove they’re serious about border security, this ain’t the bill. This is a trap,” said Kerri Talbot, executive director at the advocacy group Immigration Hub and former counsel to Senate Democrats. “All they have to do is read the bill to see it’s unconstitutional, puts long-settled immigrants at risk, and enables the Ken Paxtons of the country to target families.”

In addition to the Laken Riley Act, Republicans plan to put several immigration bills on the floor in the House and Senate in the coming weeks to appease conservatives who want to deal with the border immediately — and to force Democrats to take tough votes.

A second Democratic aide said the political dynamic on the issue is changing.

“I think for a long time Democrats have let the advocacy groups push them to the left on immigration and border security issues: pushing them to oppose even popular immigration/border security reforms because it could lead to any deportation,” the aide, who spoke candidly about the sensitive topic on condition of anonymity, wrote in a text message. “This past election showed that’s not where a majority of Americans are at, and that Dems need to be clear they are against criminals — even if that means deporting an undocumented immigrant who committed a crime.”

Walking off the floor, Fetterman responded to a question as to why he thinks more Democrats are jumping on board the Laken Riley Act.

“A blinding flash of common sense,” he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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