U.S. House sends bill named after murdered Georgia nursing student to Trump

Bishop said amendments added by the Senate improved the bill by adding violent crime and assault of a law enforcement officer to the list of charges that could get someone deported. He noted the original House bill only focused on theft and nonviolent crimes.

“If they’re going to do it, they need to do it where it counts,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, said during debate that the measure is a commonsense response to concerns about illegal immigration.

“The Laken Riley Act will ensure criminals who illegally cross our borders and endanger our communities are detained and deported while also giving states the ability to bring civil action against any federal official in the future should they refuse to enforce our country’s immigration laws and put American citizens at risk by refusing to do so,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, the primary sponsor of the bill in the House, said its passage will allow local law enforcement agencies to deport undocumented immigrants who pose a safety threat.

“These criminals that come across and inflict violence on American families, they just get more and more emboldened and they create larger and more heinous crimes,” said Collins, R-Jackson, whose district includes the University of Georgia, where Riley was killed.

The Senate signed off on the bill Monday with the help of 12 Democrats, including Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The final tally in that chamber was 64-35.

The original language, which the House previously approved, allowed law enforcement agencies to detain and begin deportation procedures for migrants accused of nonviolent crimes like burglary and theft.

A Senate amendment added assault on law enforcement officers to the list of eligible offenses, and a second amendment approved Monday broadened the measure further to include “any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person.”

The majority of Democrats in both the House and Senate voted against the measure, with several raising concerns about due process since the bill allows for deportation of undocumented immigrants accused of a crime, not a guilty conviction.

Democrats also raised concerns that there is no exemption for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals participants, or Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who crossed the border as children and have spent nearly their entire lives in the United States.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the tragedy of Riley’s death is being used to erode civil rights, and she is concerned about the law’s future consequences.

“When a Dreamer is disappeared from your classroom, when the president of the United States destroys what is left of the Constitution as he has announced in his attack on birthright citizenship, they will all say we didn’t know this was coming,” she said. “And I want the American people to know that they did. This vote represents it.”

HOW GEORGIA’S DELEGATION VOTED ON S. 5, the Laken Riley Act

“Yes”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Atlanta

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Atlanta

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta

U.S. Rep, Sanford Bishop, D-Albany

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome

U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, R-Peachtree City

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton

“No”

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia

U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta