The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain unlawful migrants charged with theft, but concerns have arisen that Democrats in the Senate may prevent a similar bill that would allow detention for violent crimes from passing.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) attempted to bring the bill to a floor vote on Thursday, but Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) reportedly denied the request.
The bill, known as Sarah’s Law, would require ICE to detain unlawful migrants who are charged with a crime that resulted in serious injury or death, per Fox News.
The bill is named after 21-year-old Sarah Root, who was allegedly struck and killed in 2016 by an unlawful migrant who was driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit. However, the unlawful migrant was later released from custody and was not charged with the crime.
“Citing the Obama administration’s November 2014 memo on immigration enforcement priorities, ICE declined to take custody of Mejia, despite his repeated driving offenses and history of skipping court dates,” explained Ernst, according to Fox News.
Ernst said the bill would “merely require ICE to detain, just to detain, otherwise deportable illegal immigrants charged with killing or seriously injuring another person.”
She also referenced the death of 22-year-old University of Georiga student Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by an unlawful migrant who had been released by local law enforcement before ICE could detain them.
The senator claimed that the deaths of Root and Riley are “doomed to be repeated” unless lawmakers take action, per Fox News.
Durbin pushed back and explained his reasoning for denying the request for the Senate to take it up. He claimed it would “deprive immigrants of the due process that everyone is afforded.”
Sarah’s Law would be similar to HR 7511, known as the Laken Riley Act, which the House passed on Thursday. If enacted, it would allow ICE to detain unlawful migrants charged with shoplifting or burglary, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Every House Republican, along with 37 House Democrats, voted in favor of the bill, resulting in it passing with a vote of 251-170. All 170 votes against the bill came from House Democrats.
Riley’s alleged killer, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, had been apprehended and released by the New York City Police Department for endangering the 5-year-old son of his wife after allowing the child to ride with him on a scooter without a helmet.
After being released in New York, Ibarra and his brother were arrested in Athens, Georgia, for allegedly shoplifting clothes and food from a Walmart.
Ibarra’s brother is also suspected of having ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, which is reportedly responsible for “recent violent confrontations with law enforcement and civilian victims in New York and elsewhere throughout the United States,” as reported by the New York Post.
