Little Apple Times

U.S. Representative Tracey Mann, representing Kansas's 1st district, cast a vote in favor of advancing the Laken Riley Act, also known as H.R. 29. The bill passed in the House of Representatives with a vote count of 264-159. The proposed legislation mandates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest illegal immigrants who commit crimes and detain them until they are deported.

The act is named after Laken Riley, a college student who was killed by Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant, at the University of Georgia campus in February 2024. Prior to this incident, Ibarra had been arrested for crossing into the U.S. illegally in September 2022 but was released and sent to New York. In August 2023, he was detained by the New York City Police Department on charges of child endangerment but was released again and relocated to Georgia where he committed further offenses.

Following his vote, Rep. Mann stated: “Since day one, President Biden has refused to enforce the laws at our nation’s borders,” adding that under current leadership "every state has become a border state." He emphasized that enforcing immigration laws could have prevented Riley's death and stressed the importance of making illegal immigration more difficult.

Rep. Mann has been consistent in his efforts to hold the Biden Administration accountable for what he perceives as failures in enforcing immigration laws. He voted for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February 2024 and supported other legislative measures such as H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023.

The bill now moves to the Senate for further deliberation.