WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats provided the votes on Friday to advance a bill requiring authorities to detain migrants who entered the country illegally if they are suspected of theft, days before President-elect Donald Trump returns to power.
The Senate voted 61-35 to limit debate on the “Laken Riley Act,” named after a Georgia college student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man previously arrested for shoplifting who entered the country illegally. Ten Democrats voted in favor, allowing the bill to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.
The vote sets the stage for passage as soon as next week.
Trump campaigned on a promise to crack down on illegal immigration and “migrant crime,” though a range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
The bill could not have advanced without Democratic support.
On Jan. 9, the House of Representatives voted 264-159 to pass the bill, with 48 Democrats supporting it.
Figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement released on Thursday estimated that the legislation would require 110,000 additional beds beyond the 41,500 funded in the last fiscal year. When counting additional transportation, staffing and other expenditures, it would cost $26.9 million annually at its peak.
This is just the first step, however, in Republicans’ immigration and border security efforts. A far broader set of changes to existing law is expected to be unveiled sometime this year.
It is still unclear whether Republicans would try to advance a wide-ranging bill unilaterally or with some Democratic support.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that there is a possibility of such bipartisanship on immigration and border security. But Republicans might seek a measure far stricter than Democrats could embrace. If so, they would attempt to use a special procedure that would circumvent the need for supermajority support in the Senate.
Trump has talked about mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, while some of his supporters have espoused the eventual elimination of all immigration into the United States.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jamie Freed)
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