The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an immigration bill related to the murder of a college student in Georgia.

WASHINGTON — On the day President Joe Biden was set to address the nation, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill named after Laiken Riley, a college student from Georgia whose murder has sparked discussions related to the administration's immigration policy. The vote concluded with a tally of 251 to 170, with 37 Democrats joining Republicans in support of the legislation. All four Republicans from Iowa also voted in favor of the bill.

Leiken, a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Augusta, was reported missing after she did not return home from a run on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens. Local law enforcement found her body and soon arrested a 26-year-old man from Venezuela, suspected of her murder — an immigrant who had previously been arrested in Georgia for shoplifting. According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra allegedly entered the country illegally in 2022.

The nine-page bill, designated as H.R. 7511, is unlikely to pass in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority. It proposes mandatory detention of immigrants accused of local thefts, robberies, or shoplifting, and grants states the right to file civil lawsuits against the federal government for "failure to enforce immigration laws," as noted by House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma during the discussion of the bill on Tuesday.

“These powers will ensure that nothing like this happens to Laiken Riley again,” added the Republican representative. The discussion and approval of this bill coincided with the day when Biden, who is already preparing for a campaign against former President Donald Trump in November, was scheduled to address the nation.

Legislative initiatives following Riley's death

Georgia lawmakers, following Riley's death, initiated a bill imposing fines on law enforcement agencies that fail to report the detention of undocumented immigrants to U.S.

“Thus, the seat reserved for my guest will remain empty in honor of Leiken and all Americans who have become victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants,” he added. During the discussion at the House of Representatives meeting, senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerry Nadler from New York, accused Republicans of “exploiting her death” and “demonizing immigrants.”

• Republicans, such as Dan Bishop from North Carolina, argued that this law is necessary to prevent the emergence of "new victims of the border crisis caused by Biden's actions."
• “Allowing this criminal to roam freely in our communities is absolutely unacceptable,” said Republican Rick Allen from Georgia during the meeting.
• Democrat Glenn Ivey from Maryland noted that the U.S. Supreme Court already established last year that the Biden administration has the right to determine its deportation policy.
• “DHS cannot detain everyone, and therefore the executive branch, not the states, should make the choice,” said Ivey.
• “This bill will not provide DHS with the resources to change this situation.”

The Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise from Louisiana, announced at a party press conference on Wednesday that Republicans plan to vote on a bill before addressing the nation to criticize the Biden administration on immigration issues at the southern border.

“This is a crisis that has had a devastating impact on families like the Leiken Riley family,” Scalise noted. Democrats sharply condemned the bill and accused Republicans of politicizing the murder of a young woman. Representative Jim McGovern from Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the Rules Committee, stated that what happened to Riley is a tragedy, and that his own daughter is now 22 years old, the same age Riley was when she was killed at the end of February.

“I am outraged that there are people in Congress and in this committee who are using such a terrible crime to gain political points,” McGovern stated.

Conflicts with the administration

Republicans in the House of Representatives have repeatedly clashed with the White House over immigration issues, pushing a partisan bill H.R. 2 that restores Trump-era immigration policies, while rejecting bipartisan negotiations in the Senate that would grant the president authority to act at the southern border. Just recently, House Republicans voted to impeach U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in early February.