Trump Signs the Laken Riley Act, the First Bill of His Second Term, Requiring Detention of Unauthorized Immigrants Charged With Theft and Other Crimes
On January 29, 2025, at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act in the East Room, enacting it as Public Law 119-1. It was the first bill of Trump's second presidency to become law.
The new law requires the Department of Homeland Security to take into custody noncitizens without legal status who are arrested for, charged with, or admit to theft-related offenses — burglary, theft, larceny and shoplifting. Those charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer, or with crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury, such as drunken driving that kills, are likewise subject to mandatory detention. The act also authorizes state attorneys general to sue the federal government if detention requirements are not carried out.
The measure was introduced on January 6 as S. 5 by Senator Katie Britt of Alabama and moved quickly: the Senate passed the amended bill 64 to 35 on January 20, and the House passed it 263 to 156 on January 22, with Democratic support in both chambers.
The law is named for Laken Riley, a 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student who was killed on February 22, 2024, while jogging on the university's campus in Athens, Georgia. Her killer, José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan man who had entered the United States without legal status and had previously been cited for shoplifting, was convicted of murder in November 2024 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Riley's mother, Allyson Phillips, and other family members attended the signing and spoke at the ceremony. Trump thanked lawmakers for the bipartisan support and said the law would save lives. Beyond the flurry of executive immigration actions in the administration's first week, the act became the first immigration enforcement measure of the new term enacted through Congress.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：特朗普2025年1月29日在白宫东厅签署《莱肯·赖利法》。（白宫官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: President Trump signing the Laken Riley Act into law in the East Room of the White House on January 29, 2025. (Official White House Photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
