'A clear message': Here's the immigration bill in response to murder of Laken Riley
Washington,
January 8, 2025
Originally published by The Augusta Chronicle
A congressional bill inspired by the murder of an Augusta University nursing student studying at an Athens satellite campus heads to the Senate on Friday. The Laken Riley Act, House Resolution 29, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday. If passed into law, it would require federal immigration officers to arrest and detain migrants who commit nonviolent crimes but are in the United States illegally. "As our first legislative measure of the 119th Congress, today's bipartisan passage of H.R. 29 sends a clear message that the days of lawlessness and chaos at our southern border are over," said U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, who represents the Augusta area and voted in favor of the bill. The proposed legislation also empowers states to pursue civil action against federal employees who don't enforce immigration law. The bill was written in hopes that there is no duplication of the sequence of events that killed Laken Riley. She was murdered while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. Authorities arrested JoseĢ Antonio Ibarra, 26, who entered the country illegally from his native Venezuela. Found guilty on 10 criminal counts, including malice murder, Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Proponents of the bill say it puts long-needed teeth into current immigration rules that the backers say have proved ineffective in stemming illegal immigration. The bill's detractors argue that its wording is too broad and would spark an increase in wrongful arrests. |
