WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act, declaring the immigration detention-focused bill named after a college student killed last year a “landmark law” that will save “countless innocent American lives.”
“We will keep Laken’s memory alive in our hearts forever and everyone’s hearts,” Trump said during a signing ceremony in the White House East Room. “With today’s action, her name will also live forever in the laws of our country and this is a very important law”
Despite approving a flurry of executive orders, presidential memorandums and proclamations in his first week and a half back in office, this marked the first legislation passed by Congress to receive Trump’s signature in his second term.
And the bill – which mandates that migrants without legal status be detained if they are accused of crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder – furthers his focus on a topic he has made clear is a key priority of his second time in the White House, immigration and the border.
“The Department of Homeland Security will be required to contain all illegal aliens who have been arrested for theft, burglary, larceny, shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, murder or any crime that results in death or serious injury,” Trump saod
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University in Georgia, was killed while out for a jog in February of last year. Prosecutors say she was strangled by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen who had been arrested in Sept. 2022 for illegal entry into the country and again for shoplifting. He was released as his case played out in immigration court.
Ibarra was found guilty of murder and other crimes in November and sentenced to life without parole.
“This horrific atrocity should never have been allowed to happen,” Trump said. “As president I’m fighting every single day to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.”
The bill passed both chambers of Congress this month, with 46 House Democrats and 12 Democrats in the Senate breaking with the majority of their party to join Republicans in backing it. Trump on Wednesday was joined by a group of House and Senate lawmakers for the East Room signing ceremony, including Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvnia who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago ahead of the inauguration.
Riley’s parents and sister were also in attendance and joined the president on-stage as he signed the legislation. Riley’s mother addressed the room briefly through tears, calling Trump a “man of his word” for her family that he would never forget their daughter and would secure the country’s borders.
Trump blasted the “stupid policies” of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, blaming them for creating the environment that allowed Riley’s murder to take place. The president – who made cracking down on immigration and the border a central theme of his 2024 campaign – cited the issue as the “single biggest reason” he is back in the White House, even over inflation and Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump returned to power one week ago having pledged a swift and aggressive crusade to close the U.S.-Mexico border, reform immigration policies and carry out the “largest mass deportation program in history.” His campaign-trail promises came as polls showed such issues rising on the list of important ones to voters.
Since returning to power, Trump wasted no time making good on some of his immigration promises, which include closing the U.S.-Mexico border, reforming immigration policies and carrying out the “largest mass deportation program in history.” He has already taken numerous executive actions on the topic, including declaring a national emergency at the Southern border, sending an additional 1,500 troops to help with the crackdown, ending birthright citizenship (which has been temporarily blocked by a judge), carrying out deportation flights using military aircraft and more.
Enforcement of Trump’s pledged crackdown appeared to ramp up over the last few days, with ICE reporting 956 arrests on Sunday, 1,179 on Monday and 969 on Tuesday. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said enforcement efforts are currently focused on undocumented immigrants it considers to be public safety and national security threats.
But both Homan and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt have stressed that any person who illegally enters the U.S. is “by definition, a criminal.”