House Republicans focused their attention on the border with their first bill of the year, passing legislation named after the slain Georgia student Laken Riley that would require detention of migrants arrested for theft. The legislation cleared the chamber in a 264-159 vote, with 48 Democrats joining all Republicans in support. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation this week. Dubbed the Laken Riley Act, the legislation honors the woman killed by a Venezuelan migrant who was arrested for shoplifting ahead of the attack and paroled in the country. Riley’s birthday would have been Friday, which is the same day the Senate may take up the bill. Tuesday’s vote marked the second time in a year that the House cleared the legislation. Republicans and a small group of Democrats approved the bill in March, but it languished amid opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate. With Republicans now holding majorities in both chambers, and President-elect Trump set to be sworn in to the White House later this month, GOP lawmakers are making another attempt at moving the measure. “We’ve been very focused on border security; the Laken Riley Act makes it clear, if you’re committing crimes in America against people, it’s not going to be tolerated,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday. “Now with [Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.)] saying he’s gonna bring it up in the Senate as early as this week, we can actually get that bill signed into law.” The bill requires detention of a broad swath of migrants, including those permitted to enter the U.S. to seek asylum, if they have been accused of theft, burglary or shoplifting. But it has sparked concern among immigration advocates because the bill requires detention of immigrants as soon as they are charged or arrested for those crimes — not when prosecutors have secured a conviction. That’s in part a response to Jose Ibarra, sentenced in November to life in prison for killing Riley, who avoided a conviction on shoplifting after being sent to a diversion program. Nonetheless, critics fear migrants would be placed in detention without due process. “This is a radical departure from current law, which since 1996 has generally required mandatory detention only for persons who are criminally convicted or who admit to having committed certain serious crimes. That is, when criminal guilt is certain and established beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “Under this bill, a person who has lived in the United States for decades, say for most of her life, paid taxes and bought a home, but who is mistakenly arrested for shoplifting would not be free to resume her life, but rather would be detained and deported, even if the chargers are dropped.” Raskin then noted that many Republicans have expressed their own doubts about the legal system when it comes to Trump’s run-ins with the law. “It seems to me passing strange, Mr. Speaker, that our friends are taking this position when they do not even believe the criminal justice system can be trusted when a jury unanimously convicts someone whose had the best legal representation money can buy in the state of New York on 34 different felony criminal counts after an extended criminal trial with all due process protections, including cross-examination and the right to counsel being afforded,” he said. The legislation also allows state attorneys general to sue to enforce the law — a move that comes after courts have largely fought state efforts to intervene in immigration enforcement matters. While the bill is expected to be considered by the GOP-led Senate later this week, it's unclear whether it has enough support to clear the 60-vote threshold. The legislation, however, does have bipartisan backing in the upper chamber: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has signed on as a co-sponsor, and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is planning to vote for the measure. House Republicans passed the Laken Riley Act as their first legislative effort of the 119th Congress, a reflection of their focus on immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. Those matters were top of mind during the 2024 election, and many analysts saw them as key to GOP victories in the House and Senate. “As promised, we're starting today with border security. If you polled the populace and the voters, they would tell you that that was the top of the list, and we have a lot to do there to fix it,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday. Republicans also seized on the opportunity to split Democrats on the vote. In March, 37 Democrats joined GOP lawmakers in supporting the legislation. On Tuesday, Johnson said he was eager to see if more would join their ranks after the party’s bruising election losses in November. “When we brought this bill forward last Congress, shockingly, amazingly to me, 170 House Democrats voted against that legislation,” Johnson said. “But as Democrats struggle with their identity now as a party postelection, we'll find out if they're still clinging into that open border policy and that mantra, despite the American people roundly rejecting all that in November. We'll see. This will be a telling vote.” Democratic leadership did not whip for or against the Laken Riley Act, allowing members of the caucus to vote their conscience. The same dynamic is likely to take place in the Senate, with some Democrats backing the legislation and others standing in opposition. Democrats accused Republicans of scapegoating immigrants but also took an unusual debate posture in highlighting a man who was killed by a migrant let into the country during the Trump administration. Multiple studies have found immigrants — including undocumented immigrants — tend to commit crimes at lower rates than native-born residents. Any run-in with law enforcement could spark deportation proceedings or hinder an application for a green card. But Raskin pointed to the hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border under the first Trump administration who were likewise released into the U.S. One of them, he said, killed 19-year-old Adam Luker in a car accident last year. “Why don't we have a bill named after Adam Luker? Is it because of the inconvenient fact that the undocumented alien who killed him came in under Donald Trump?” he asked. “I would hate to think so. But we can find lots of cases like that.”  Al Weaver and Rafael Bernal contributed.