On Jan. 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill named for Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed in February by a man who was in the country illegally.
The Laken Riley Act would require U.S. immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrants who are charged with theft-related crimes. It also includes a provision that would empower state attorneys general to sue the federal government over harms caused by illegal immigration.
Riley’s case drew national attention as part of the discussion about immigration, a major campaign issue in last year’s presidential race.
Forty-eight House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill by a margin of 264-159. The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate. It will need a handful of Democratic votes in order to pass.
Here’s how Arizona’s House delegation voted.
How did Arizona’s representatives vote on the bill?
All but two of Arizona’s House members voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act.
The state’s six Republican representatives voted to pass the bill, as did Rep. Greg Stanton, a Democrat. Freshman Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a progressive Democrat from Arizona, voted against the measure.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, another progressive, did not vote. Grijalva has been in and out of Congress after his cancer treatment.
The last time the Laken Riley Act came up for a vote was in March 2024. At that time, all of Arizona’s U.S. House members voted in favor of it, except for Grijalva and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who did not vote.
The Laken Riley Act: Who voted no?
The only “no” vote from Arizona, Ansari wrote that the bill would serve as “a license to discriminate against our immigrant communities, including DREAMers.”
“The murder of Laken Riley was a horrific tragedy. But the anti-immigrant bill being pushed by House Republicans will do nothing to prevent this kind of violence or reform our broken immigration system,” she said in a written statement released after the vote.
“Under this legislation, someone charged — just charged, not found guilty — could be immediately deported. This is a gross miscarriage of justice, and I voted no.”
Republicans, meanwhile, celebrated the bill as an overdue action to address crime committed by migrants.
Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., wrote that he voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act “to honor her memory and ensure bad actors here illegally are detained to prevent innocent lives from being lost to the crisis.”
Reps. Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, both immigration hawks, criticized Democrats for voting against the bill. Crane called it “appalling” that “159 Democrats sided with criminal aliens by voting against this commonsense measure.”
Delivering remarks on the House floor, Biggs listed statistics and recent examples of crimes committed by people who are in the country illegally.
“You can stand up and say, ‘We’re not bringing meaningful legislation.’ You can stand up and say that you feel real bad for Laken Riley and her family. And how about all the other victims of illegal aliens who have committed crimes,” Biggs said. “But you know the first thing they did that was illegal? They entered our country. You want to protect them.”
