US House Office of Photography (Left), Laken Riley / Facebook (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // A handful of Democratic senators announced Wednesday they will vote Friday to break the filibuster on the Laken Riley Act, thus bringing the pro-border security legislation one step closer to passage in the upper chamber.
Also Wednesday, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-AZ, announced that he will co-sponsor the legislation, joining its other Democratic co-sponsor John Fetterman, D-PA, who announced his support a day earlier.
The U.S. House overwhelmingly voted to pass the act Tuesday with 48 Democrats breaking with the majority of their party to vote with Republicans in support.
POLITICO reported that as of late Wednesday, at least nine members of the Senate Democratic caucus will vote to advance the legislation during the chamber’s Friday session, “which would begin debate for the bill and break the filibuster.”
These senators include the legislation’s two Democratic cosponsors Fetterman and Gallego, in addition to Sens. Mark Kelly, D-AZ, Gary Peters, D-MI, Jacky Rosen, D-NV, Tammy Duckworth, D-IL, Jon Ossoff, D-GA, John Hickenlooper, D-CO, and Angus King, I-ME.
Of these senators, Fetterman, Gallego, Kelly, and Peters are reportedly confirmed “yes” votes on the bill’s final passage. Sources differ on whether Ossoff plans to vote for the bill itself or simply to advance it to debate.
>> TUESDAY: HOUSE PASSES LAKEN RILEY ACT <<
Eight of the 11 senators who reportedly will vote to advance the bill represent states won by President-elect Donald Trump in November, with Duckworth, Hickenlooper, and King being the exceptions.
According to The Hill, an additional two Democratic senators, Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-MI, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, might also vote to advance the bill, which would bring the total of Democratic-caucus votes to 11. Per The Hill, Shaheen told CNN she is “inclined” to vote in support.
With at least nine Democratic senators uniting with the Senate’s 52 Republicans to break the filibuster on the bill, the legislation is all but guaranteed to exceed a 60-vote threshold and advance Friday. A 53rd Republican, Senator-elect Jim Justice, R-WV, is due to join the Senate next week, albeit after Friday’s initial vote.
However, even after the bill passes, there are still more steps before it can reach the president’s desk.
POLITICO explained that “typical Senate rules also require 60 senators to end debate on a bill before a final” simple majority vote. Of the five Democratic senators who said they will vote to advance the bill but stopped short of supporting it, “several indicated they still have problems with the legislation,” POLITICO noted.
As CatholicVote previously reported, H.R. 29, or the Laken Riley Act, “requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals … who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.”
The bill’s namesake, Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was murdered in February 2024 by illegal Venezuelan migrant Jose Ibarra. Before going on to kill Riley, Ibarra was previously arrested for shoplifting and released.
Friday, the very day the Senate will vote to advance and begin debate on the legislation, would have been Riley’s 23rd birthday.
In announcing his support, Gallego wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday morning: “Not only am I voting yes on the Laken Riley Act, I’m cosponsoring the bill.”
“Arizonans know better than most the real consequences of today’s border crisis,” added the lawmaker. “We must give law enforcement the means to take action to prevent tragedies like what occurred to Laken Riley.”
Gallego was narrowly elected to an open Senate seat in November on the same day Trump carried Arizona.
The first Democratic senator to publicly support and cosponsor the Laken Riley Act was Fetterman. During a Tuesday FOX News interview, he called on his fellow Democratic colleagues to support it as well.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrants here illegally that have [been] convicted of crimes,” he said. “Who wants to allow them to remain in our nation after that?”
“If you’re here illegally and you’re committing crimes,” he added, “I don’t know why anybody thinks that it’s controversial that they all need to go.”
Fetterman told host Bret Baier that he thinks that if the Senate Democratic caucus “can’t pull up with seven votes … that’s a reason why we lost.”
