Free Republic

New Mexico Democrat Rep. Gabe Vasquez is facing sharp criticism after touting his vote against the Laken Riley Act and attacking President Donald Trump’s immigration policies during an April 16 town hall event. At the meeting, Vasquez proudly announced his opposition to the legislation, which was signed into law by Trump on January 29. “I did. I voted against [the bill],” Vasquez declared to cheers from the audience. He added, “Because due process is a fundamental part of who we are as Americans,” attempting to frame his opposition as a defense of constitutional rights — despite the clear public safety...

CLARKE COUNTY, Ga. — The brother of the man convicted of killing UGA student Laken Riley has been sentenced to prison after admitted he had a fraudulent green card, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. Diego Jose Ibarra, 29, was sentenced to serve 48 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document on July 15, 2024. Ibarra will be placed in ICE custody at the conclusion of his federal prison sentence and deported, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Georgia. Officials say Homeland Security learned Diego Ibarra was undocumented in the...

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, threw down the gauntlet to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, warning the Democrat if he insists on harboring illegal aliens, he’ll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Over the weekend, Murphy foolishly incriminated himself by bragging that he was harboring an illegal alien above his garage — in defiance of Trump’s executive order and in violation of federal immigration laws. At an event hosted by the left-wing group Blue Wave New Jersey, Murphy gloated: “There is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point...

While President Donald Trump has issued numerous executive orders in the last 11 days, the Laken Riley Act, which Trump signed on Wednesday, marked the first piece of legislation he has put into law in his new term. The legislation is named for an Augusta University nursing student who was murdered last year in Georgia by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.

Arizona’s newest Sen. Ruben Gallego has a history as a progressive firebrand. But, his first moves as a sitting senator have the progressive left up in arms. He voted for and cosponsored the Laken Riley Act, which requires undocumented immigrants who are arrested for a theft or a violent crime to be held in jail until they go to trial. Immigrant activists have said it allows for the detention of people who haven’t been convicted of any crime. But Gallego says it’s about giving law enforcement the tools they need when undocumented immigrants break the law. It’s what Elvia Diaz,...

Congress passed the Laken Riley Act as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood firmly against it. The New York Democrat ripped Republicans for the bill which is named after the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant. The Senate voted to approve it 64-35 and the House followed with a 263-156 vote that included 46 Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez unloaded in a rant on the House floor, warning that the legislation is “corruption in plain sight.” The bill will “expand mandatory detention to include noncitizens convicted of or charged with burglary, larceny, theft or shoplifting, as well as those who...

Democrats see the light. The Laken Riley deportation bill passed the Senate easily.Good News From Senate DemocratsBy a filibuster-proof margin, Senate Democrats Help Republicans Advance Immigration Crackdown.Ten Democrats sided with Republicans to advance the legislation, called the Laken Riley Act, a sign of the Democrats’ shifting stance on immigration. Polls showed voters consistently favored Republicans’ hard line on the border and immigration, following a surge of illegal crossings that has since subsided. A bipartisan bill backed by President Biden stalled last year.The chamber voted 61-35 to end debate on the bill, above the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation to...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) defended his vote against the Laken Riley Act by stating that “people are going to be targeted because they’re brown.” Host Chris Hayes asked, “[T]here’s a sort of a test of this happening now with this piece of legislation that would essentially make larger the category of immigrants who are here undocumented without status who can be put into the deportation queue if arrested, not convicted, for a set of category of crimes. So, it enlargens that. It also, in a more — well, a part that a lot...

Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, recently cited internal divisions within his party over immigration policies as a factor in November's electoral defeat. ... On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, a Republican-backed bill that seeks to curb illegal immigration by boosting border security and expanding detention powers for migrants accused of minor offenses. Though Republicans control the Senate, they require the support of at least seven Democrats—in addition to Fetterman, who co-sponsored the bill—to secure the 60 votes needed to surpass a filibuster and advance the legislation. ... "There's 47 of us in...

The Laken Riley Act has more than enough votes to pass the Senate and overcome a filibuster, a procedural vote showed on Tuesday. Dozens of Democrats joined all voting Republicans in expressing support for the bill, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold to prevent far-left senators from filibustering the bill. The legislation, named after a nursing student murdered last February by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in Georgia, mandates that federal immigration authorities detain illegal immigrants suspected of theft or related crimes. It also allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for damages resulting from illegal immigration. The Senate is...

President-elect Donald Trump is poised to take office with a significant legislative accomplishment on the horizon, and one that dovetails with his message of increasing federal efforts to deport criminal illegal immigrants. The U.S. House on Tuesday passed the Laken Riley Act, which would lower the criminal threshold for individuals living in the U.S. illegally and charged with certain nonviolent crimes like theft, burglary, and the sale of narcotics. The bipartisan vote saw 48 Democrats break with 159 of their colleagues and vote with Republicans to advance the measure to the Senate, where it is expected to be taken up...

Sen. John Fetterman is the lone Senate Democrat cosponsoring a Republican-led bill that would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants arrested for theft-related crimes. The bill, passed with bipartisan support in the House on Tuesday, is slated to come up for a Senate vote on Friday. In addition to requiring federal detention of undocumented immigrants who commit theft, it would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration, greatly expanding the authority of state attorneys general. Lawmakers named the legislation after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing...

Horrific video has emerged showing the moment a Las Vegas showgirl was knifed to death in the street in her red feather outfit during a mass stabbing. Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, 30, was killed in the October 2022 rampage along with Brent Hallett, 47. Prosecutors say Yoni Barrios, 34, is responsible for their murder as well as injuring six others, many of them showgirls.

The House of Representatives has passed the Laken Riley Act with a vote of 264–159. Almost all Republicans and 48 Democrats united to push the bill through the lower chamber of Congress.The legislation requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants who have committed certain crimes, such as theft, burglary, or shoplifting.It also allows states to sue the federal government for injunctive relief over “certain immigration-related decisions or alleged failures” if they resulted in harm to that state.These can include the failure to detain an individual who has already been ordered to be deported, or neglecting to fulfill...

Venezuelan who is running for office in Utah warned that local authorities “are not ready” to deal with Tren de Aragua — as the vicious prison gang has expanded its territory to at least 18 states. Carlos Moreno, who is running for Salt Lake County Council in District 2, spoke out against Tren de Aragua gangbangers .. who have been linked to at least two separate crimes in the Beehive State capital — including a prostitution ring. “Our law enforcement people are not ready,” ... They are not ready yet to face these kinds of gangs in Utah because the...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says subcommittee will look at government programs, contracts, employees ... Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said leaders of sanctuary states and cities should have to explain why they deserve federal dollars to a new congressional subcommittee bent on cutting government waste. Greene, who was tapped to lead a subcommittee working with the Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), laid out how she hopes to cut government spending ... One area Greene said she wants the subcommittee to investigate is tied to the immigration crisis. "I'd like to talk to the governors of sanctuary...

MSNBC on Friday changed its headline to a story on Laken Riley, the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant earlier this year, after it was met with widespread outrage on X. The initial headline to the opinion piece, written by legal analyst Danny Cevallos, was “Laken Riley’s Killer Never Stood a Chance.” That was altered on Friday to “The Guilt of Laken Riley’s Killer Was Never in Doubt.” MSNBC’s story was posted a day after Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan gangster who entered the U.S. illegally, was found guilty of murdering Riley in February. Ibarra...

'Laken Riley's killer never stood a chance.' That was the actual headline on MSNBC's website Friday morning, topping a piece sympathetic to the illegal migrant who savagely attempted to rape Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, before bashing her head in and killing her. Sick, sick, sick. The only person who never stood a chance was Laken Riley. But that's the far-left for you, failing to learn a single lesson from the drubbing they took on Election Day. Failing to be humbled, failing to self-examine, failing to detach from their simplistic, reductive orthodoxy that racializes everything, including a horrific, wholly preventable...

A state senator is demanding that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr file an emergency motion to intervene and demand the death penalty against Laken Riley’s killer, but Carr's office maintains that he does not have the legal authority to do so. "I am officially calling on Attorney General Chris Carr to file an emergency motion to intervene and demand the death penalty for the murderer of Laken Riley," state Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican, wrote on X. "District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez let her radical political agenda stand in the way of justice. By refusing to seek the death penalty, she...

Kemp argued that border policies under President Biden are 'outrageous'Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says justice was served after a judge gave the 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela who was convicted of murdering Laken Riley a life sentence. "I'm glad that justice was served, and it was swift and severe," the governor said in a Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday soon after a judge in Athens County, Georgia, convicted and then sentenced Jose Antonio Ibarra, a migrant who had entered the U.S. illegally. Kemp said the conviction and sentencing were "no surprise" and emphasized that Riley's murder was "a really tragic...