The US Congress yesterday adopted the first bill of Donald Trump’s second term as president, which is intended — a symbolic event, although rather expected — to crack down on illegal immigration.
The text provides for automatic pretrial detention by federal law enforcement of illegal immigrants who are prosecuted or convicted of certain criminal offenses.
It was passed by the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a majority, by a vote of 263 to 156.
About forty Democrats voted in favor, a sign of the dramatic shift in attitudes and attitudes toward immigration across the American political class.
His ratification was expected from the new president Donald Trump immediately, as the Republican in his inauguration ceremony repeated the promise to deport “millions of foreign criminals”, to send them “to where they came from”.
“Criminal aliens must be detained, deported and never allowed to return to our country,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said via X, capitalizing the word “never” for emphasis. .
For left-wing Democratic lawmaker Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes, this law is a slippery slope that will further erode the rule of law.
“In a few months, members of Congress who voted for this text will pretend they had no idea all the pain it will cause,” he told the panel.
Other Democrats decried its colossal cost, predicting $83 billion in spending. dollars in the first three years.
“Too much will be spent on a bill that will lead to chaos,” commented Democratic Senator Patty Murray via X a few days ago.
The bill was dubbed “Lakeen Riley,” after a 22-year-old student who was killed in February 2024 in the southern United States by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, had been arrested before this murder for theft. He was sentenced to serve a life sentence without any possibility of reduction of the sentence.
The case caused a strong emotional charge in the country and was exploited as much as possible by Donald Trump and the Republicans in the campaign, blaming what they said was the overly lenient policy of the Joe Biden administration on border control.
In particular, they had demanded that the former Democratic president apologize to the victim’s family.
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