On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced plans to open a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, aimed at housing up to 30,000 migrants living in the U.S. without legal status.
This declaration came just before he put pen to paper on the Laken Riley Act, marking it as the first piece of legislation from his administration. This bipartisan law stipulates that individuals in the U.S. illegally who face accusations of theft or violent offenses could be detained and possibly deported even before they are convicted.
The measure swiftly made its way through the newly Republican-controlled Congress, gaining some backing from Democrats despite concerns from immigrant rights advocates. They warned that it might result in large-scale roundups for relatively minor offenses like shoplifting. Trump has vowed that his administration will launch the biggest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history.
Trump, who reclaimed the White House by harnessing public frustration around illegal immigration, has made this crackdown a cornerstone of his political agenda. Now, he’s hinting that this new law could just be the start of even more aggressive measures to come.
RELATED: Donald Trump Is Pausing Federal Loans And Grants As His Administration Reviews Spending
“This shows the potential for additional enforcement bills that will help us crack down on criminal aliens and totally restore the rule of law in our country,” the president“This shows the potential for additional enforcement bills that will help us crack down on criminal aliens and totally restore the rule of law in our country,” the president said during a conference in Florida.
The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who tragically lost her life while out for a run in February 2024. She was killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national living in the U.S. without legal status. Ibarra was convicted in November and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.