The US Congress on Wednesday adopted the first bill of the second Trump presidency, which – as a symbol – attacks illegal immigration.
• Also read: Trump suspends entry of refugees into the United States
The bill requires the automatic detention by federal law enforcement of illegal immigrants who have been convicted or indicted for certain crimes.
It was adopted by the Republican-majority House of Representatives with 263 votes for and 156 against.
Around forty Democratic elected officials voted for the text, a sign of changing trends on the subject of immigration within the American political class.
A subsequent promulgation by Donald Trump is expected, he who promised Monday in his inauguration speech to “send millions and millions of criminal foreigners back to where they came from”.
Democratic elected officials denounced the staggering cost, according to them, of the measure adopted on Wednesday, putting forward the figure of 83 billion dollars over the first three years.
“That’s a lot of money to spend on a bill that’s going to cause chaos,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said on X.
-For left-wing elected official Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this law is a slippery slope that will further erode the rule of law.
“In a few months, there will be members of Congress who voted for this bill and who will claim that they were not aware of all the bad things that are going to happen because of it,” she said. launched from the hemicycle.
The bill was named the “Laken Riley Act,” after a 22-year-old student killed in February 2024 in the southeastern United States by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant.
José Antonio Ibarra, 26, had been arrested before the murder for shoplifting. He has since been sentenced to an irreducible life sentence.
The affair had created significant stir during the electoral campaign and had been extensively exploited by Donald Trump and the Republicans, who blamed this murder on the lax policy of the Biden administration in terms of border control.
They had demanded that the Democratic president present an “apology” to the family of Laken Riley.
Related News :