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Donald Trump looks on after signing the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC on 29 January 2025. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump looks on after signing the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC on 29 January 2025. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Trump notches legislative win with Laken Riley Act signed into law

New law mandates detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, among other provisions

Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday, marking the first legislative win for the president’s administration’s hardline immigration agenda since he took office earlier this month.

The legislation mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, and allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believe their states have been harmed by its failure to enforce immigration laws.

The Laken Riley Act is named after a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was murdered in 2023 by Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. Last November, Ibarra was found guilty and sentenced to life without parole.

In an address at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said: “We will keep Laken’s memory alive in our hearts forever. With today’s action, her name will also live forever in the laws of our country. This is a very important law. This is something that has brought Democrats and Republicans together. That’s not easy to do. Laken did it.”

Speaking to Riley’s family from the podium, Trump said: “I’ve done many of these … different bills, different passages … I’ve never seen such support as you have today, and as your great daughter has today. I’ve never seen anything like it. And we have to thank your daughter for that because she’s going to save a lot of lives.”

Trump went on to invite Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, to address the room.

“We … want to thank President Trump for the promises he made us. He said he would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Laken … He is a man of his word and we trust that he will fight for the American people,” said Phillips.

She added: “There is no amount of change that will ever bring back our precious Laken … Our hope moving forward is that her life saves lives.”

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Immigration rights advocates have warned against the legislation, with Sarah Mehta, senior border policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, saying: “This is an extreme and reactive bill that will authorize the largest expansion of mandatory detention we have seen in decades, sweeping in children, Dreamers, parents of US citizen children and other longtime members of their communities who even [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] thinks should not be detained.”

Mehta also pointed out that this “legislation offers no solutions to improve our immigration system”.

Similarly, Mari Urbina, managing director of the progressive group Indivisible, told the Guardian: “Reinforcing Republicans’ anti-immigrant messaging and handing them political wins without a fight is not a plan … Immigration policy is a messaging playground for Republicans who use immigrants as scapegoats to expand their power but never offer real solutions, and Democrats should not play.”

Since taking office earlier this month, Trump has signed a flurry of anti-immigration orders including an end to birthright citizenship – which a US judge temporarily blockedsuspension of refugee admissions and an order that declared migration an “invasion”.

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