WASHINGTON — President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act Wednesday to require the detention of illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes — saying he was ending “four long years — frightful years” of former President Joe Biden’s policies.
The legislation was the first bill to be signed by Trump, 78, in his second term, which began last Monday.
“It’s a landmark law that we’re doing today. It’s going to save countless innocent American lives,” Trump said at an East Room signing ceremony alongside relatives of the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered last February while jogging on the University of Georgia’s campus.
Riley’s killer, Venezuelan illegal immigrant José Antonio Ibarra, was released by Biden administration officials after he was caught crossing the border near El Paso, Texas, in September 2022.
Ibarra was subsequently arrested for child endangerment in New York City and for theft from a Walmart in Georgia before attacking Riley.
The Biden administration released large numbers of illegal immigrants into the US if they sought asylum after the 46th president terminated Trump’s first-term “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Badly backlogged immigration proceedings meant that even migrants with dubious claims of persecution could expect years of protection from deportation, along with work permits and substantial federal aid, including paid housing and free smartphones.
“Under the law I’m signing today, the Department of Homeland Security will be required to detain all illegal aliens who have been arrested for theft, burglary, larceny, shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, murder or any crime that results in death or serious injury,” Trump said.
“In addition, for the first time ever, this act gives state governments the ability to sue the federal government for immediate injunctive relief if any future administration ever again refuses to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.”
The Laken Riley Act passed Congress with bipartisan support as Trump makes good on his campaign-trail vow to deport illegal immigrants — beginning with those already charged with or convicted of crimes, of whom more than 660,000 were present and not in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as of last year.
About 15,000 homicide convicts and suspects and more than 100,000 people convicted or accused of assault were not in ICE custody despite being known to the agency, according to federal data from July.
Trump’s administration has used military aircraft to return some illegal immigrants to their homelands — and over the weekend he forced Colombia to abandon its refusal to cooperate by threatening steep tariffs.
“The people that are in shackles are murderers. They’re drug lords, they’re rapists, they’re very tough people. They make our criminals look like very nice people,” Trump said Wednesday.
“They’re going to all take them back and they’re going to like it, too.”
