It’s a different world with a different leader than when the Laken Riley Act was first introduced in the Senate last year. Then, the bill languished in committee without ever seeing a vote. Now, it’s the Senate’s first step under President Donald Trump.
After a 64-35 vote that occurred hours after Trump’s inauguration in the Capitol rotunda, the bill became the first to pass the Senate in the 119th Congress. It showed Republicans fully unified behind the president on unauthorized immigration, his top political priority. And unlike his last term, it showed some Democrats are willing to go along.
Not that the voters gave them much of a choice, Republicans said.