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WASHINGTON Hours before President Joe Bidens State of the Union address, the U.S. House Thursday passed the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia college student whose murder has been blamed by conservatives on White House immigration policies.

On the 251-170 vote, 37 Democrats voted with Republicans who pushed for the legislation.

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University, was reported missing by her roommate when she did not return home after a run on the campus of the University of Georgia at Athens. Local police found her body and shortly afterward arrested a 26-year-old man from Venezuela for her murder an immigrant who had been previously arrested in Georgia on a shoplifting charge.

According to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra allegedly entered the country illegally in 2022.

The nine-page messaging bill, H.R. 7511, is not likely to advance in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

It would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants charged with local theft, burglary or shoplifting. It would also grant states the authority to bring civil lawsuits against the federal government for failure to enforce immigration law, House Rules Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma said during a markup of the bill Tuesday.

Together these authorities will ensure that what happened to Laken Riley wont happen to anyone else in the future, Cole, a Republican, said.

Republicans timed debate and approval of the legislation to come the same day that Biden, who will face former President Donald Trump in November in a reelection campaign already heavily focused on immigration, will speak to the nation.

Following Rileys death, the Georgia state legislature is moving a bill that would penalize law enforcement agencies that do not notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, of an arrest if an undocumented immigrant is in custody and found to be in the U.S. without authorization.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican who represents the Athens district, wrote on X that he invited Rileys parents to the State of the Union as his guests, but they have chosen to stay home as they grieve the loss of their daughter.

Therefore, the seat reserved for my guest will remain vacant to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime, he said.

During debate on the U.S. House floor Thursday, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, accused Republicans of exploiting her death, and demonizing immigrants.

Republicans like North Carolinas Dan Bishop argued that the bill was necessary, so there are no other victims of the Biden border crisis.

Allowing this criminal to freely roam our communities is absolutely unacceptable, Georgia GOP Rep. Rick Allen said on the House floor Thursday.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey argued that the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled last year that the Biden administration has the authority to determine its deportation policy.

DHS cannot detain everybody, so the executive branch, not the states, have to make choices, Ivey said. This bill would not give DHS the resources to change that.

House GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said during a Wednesday GOP press conference that Republicans planned to vote on the bill ahead of the State of the Union to criticize the Biden administration for its handling of immigration at the southern border.

A crisis that has had a devastating impact on families like Laken Rileys, Scalise said.

Democrats decried the bill and accused Republicans of politicizing a young womans murder.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said what happened to Riley was a tragedy and that his own daughter is 22, the same age Riley was when she was killed in late February.

I am appalled that we have people in Congress and in this committee who are using such a horrible crime to score political points, McGovern said. Were here because you want to try to campaign off this horrible tragedy.

House Republicans have clashed repeatedly with the White House over immigration, such as passing on a party line H.R. 2, a bill that would reinstate Trump-era immigration policies, and walking away from a bipartisan deal in the Senate to give the president executive action at the southern border.

Most recently, House Republicans voted to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in early February.

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U.S. House approves immigration bill linked to murder of Georgia college student Louisiana Illuminator - Louisana Illuminator

A grandmother and her granddaughter killed in Ozonna, Texas by a car driven by human smugglers. An illegal alien dead after the car he was smuggled in crashed at 110 mph. Eight more illegal aliens dead as their smuggler raced to outrun cops at 100 mph. These are just some of the tragedies that have been caused by what law enforcement refer to asbailouts.

A bailout is a term used by law enforcement to describe a high-speed car escape by people transporting illegal aliens in vehicles. As U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are overrun processing surges of illegal aliens at the border, their personnel are stretched thin and this encourages smugglers to try and simply outrun CBP officers. The bailout drivers have a callous disregard for safety, as was the case in one bailout where a car with a two-year-old migrant as a passenger was pursued in Hidalgo County, Texas, where the driver lost control during a chase with law enforcement at 90mph.

Border communities have borne the brunt of the current administrations relaxed attitude to border controls. In some border communities, such as Brackettville, Texas, boulders are placed near the school buildings to protect children from bailout crashes. The school had previously seen migrants in bailouts attempting to flee into the school building itself. Nearby is the town of Uvalde, which has also seen a massive surge in bailouts. Mayor Don McLaughlin told reporters that bailouts have grown in frequency to the point that the city sees multiple bailout chases per day. Uvalde is located on roads directly leading to some of the busiest border crossing areas, such as Del Rio and EaglePass.

The bailouts are not just killing and injuring people while creating a near-constant hazard on our streets. They are also impacting other areas of law enforcement. As law enforcement works hard to deal with this new threat and repeat bailout alerts, it can understandably lead to sense of fatigue, frustration, and demoralization. In July 2022, a Texas House Investigative Committee report suggested that police in border communities were experiencing a general desensitization towards crime and security caused by multiple daily bailouts. Law enforcement personnel do a difficult job, made all the more difficult by the refusal of the current administration to properly enforce bordercontrols.

The danger of bailouts is now spreading beyond border communities. Illegal aliens generally head for cities where they aim to work illegally rather than staying long-term in border communities. In Lytle, Texas, Police Chief Richard Priest noted that officers were dealing with up to five bailouts per week. Whats strange is were 132 miles from the border. I never considered us a border community he told reporters. Lytle lays just outside San Antonio, a city many illegal aliens head to, which may explain the uptick in bailouts. Sadly, more communities, border and interior, will feel the impact of reckless driving by either illegal aliens or those who smugglethem.

Thanks to the current administrations policies, Americas borders are essentially open. Illegal aliens will continue to take advantage of that, and these bailouts will continue to place everyone atrisk.

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High Speed Chases: How Illegal Alien Bailouts Threaten American Communities | FAIRUS.org - Federation for American Immigration Reform

Arlington County, Virginia, is known for being welcoming. Just across from Washington, D.C., the county is home to many national monuments and tourist attractions and is routinely rated as one of Americas best places to live (as well as one of the most expensive). Unfortunately, that rating seems to have gone to the County Boards head. The Arlington County Board is re-evaluating the possibility of extending taxpayer-funded housing grants to illegal aliens, in defiance of both state law and the wishes of its own citizens who would foot thebill.

Arlington County currently offers housing grants to some low-income renter households, paying a significant portion of their monthly rent with taxpayer funds. Arlington County has historically restricted these grants only to U.S. citizens and lawfully present individuals, as required by Virginia law. The criteria the County sets out are already overly permissive, because as FAIR explains in the introduction of our latest population study some categories of lawfully present individuals, like those with Temporary Protected Status or DACA, are in fact illegal aliens. Restricting aid to lawfully present foreigners isnt enough for radical activist groups like the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC), though. They are now working with the County Attorneys Office to make every illegal alien in this expensive county eligible for housinggrants.

Even the Countys own study on the program shows what a burden paying illegal aliens rent would be. This study notes that only 40 percent of survey respondents, by far the lowest support of any proposal in the study, supported expanding housing grants to any illegal alien living in Arlington County. Adding just 50 new illegal alien families to the program would cost a whopping $421,800 per year according to the study, in addition to more money for existing mixed-status families i.e., households with a mix of illegal aliens and U.S.-born citizens. Arlington residents know that a handout of over $8,400 a year in taxpayer funds per illegal alien household, and the additional costs they impose, are a recipe for attracting social issues and fiscal burdens even if their County Board does not seem to share theirconcerns.

The workarounds to Virginia law that open-borders activists have proposed are also far-fetched. These activists claim that publicly funded need-based grants are not public assistance and therefore usual Virginia restrictions do not apply. Their other proposal is even more telling. The activist group unsurprisingly states that the County should simply give the program funding and administration to a nonprofit like the group itself. FAIR has covered extensively federal funding being handed out to NGOs that support illegal aliens, and this playbook is also repeating itself in counties like Arlington across the country with local taxpayerfunds.

Ironically, the high cost of living in Arlington County is one of the few things insulating this sanctuary county from the worst consequences of illegal immigration in other jurisdictions. Free housing for illegal aliens in New York City and Massachusetts has been a complete disaster for American citizens stuck with massive bills and out-of-control migrant crime. Arlington residents, and all American citizens, deserve better than their money being spent on making life easier for immigrationlawbreakers.

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One of America's Best Places to Live Considering Handouts for Illegals, Despite Resident Opposition | FAIRUS.org - Federation for American Immigration...

WASHINGTON On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), joined his colleagues on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) including Ranking Member Rand Paul, M.D. (R-Ky.), and Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), in sending a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting additional information on Jose Antonio Ibarra. Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022, has been charged with the murder of Laken Hope Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University on the campus of the University of Georgia.

The senators letter highlights Ibarras lengthy criminal history. In 2022, Ibarra was arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) near El Paso, Texas after illegally entering the United States, but was paroled and released. In the months leading up to Laken Hope Rileys murder, Ibarra had multiple encounters with state and local law enforcement, including charges of reckless endangerment of a child in New York City and a misdemeanor shoplifting citation in Georgia. Despite consistently demonstrating a clear disregard for U.S. law, Ibarra was never taken into Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) custody.

In the letter, the senators question DHSs ability to effectively secure our homeland following the tragic murder of Laken Hope Riley. The senators requested DHS provide all documents and records related to Ibarra including the Alien file and communications between and among DHS, CBP, ICE, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies regarding Ibarra.

Full text of the letter can be foundhere.

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Sen. Johnson Joins Letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas Requesting Information on Illegal Immigrant Charged with ... - Senator Ron Johnson

Immigrants wait to be processed after they crossed the border into the U.S. in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 22. Eleven states and D.C. offer taxpayer-funded health insurance to some immigrants without legal status. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Immigrants wait to be processed after they crossed the border into the U.S. in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 22. Eleven states and D.C. offer taxpayer-funded health insurance to some immigrants without legal status.

A growing number of states are opening taxpayer-funded health insurance programs to immigrants, including those living in the U.S. without authorization, even as Republicans assail President Joe Biden over a dramatic increase in illegal crossings of the southern border.

Eleven states and Washington, D.C., together provide full health insurance coverage to more than 1 million low-income immigrants regardless of their legal status, according to state data compiled by KFF Health News. Most aren't authorized to live in the U.S., state officials say.

Enrollment in these programs could nearly double by 2025 as at least seven states initiate or expand coverage. In January, Republican-controlled Utah will start covering children regardless of immigration status, while New York and California will widen eligibility to cover more adults.

"These are kids, and we have a heart," said Utah state Rep. Jim Dunnigan, a Republican who initially opposed his state's plan to cover children lacking legal status but relented after compromises including a cap on enrollment.

There are more than 10 million people living in the U.S. without authorization, according to estimates by the Pew Research Center. Immigrant advocates and academic experts point to two factors behind state leaders' rising interest in providing health care to this population: The pandemic highlighted the importance of insurance coverage to control the spread of infectious diseases; and some states are focusing on people without legal status to further drive down the country's record-low uninsured rate.

States have also expanded coverage in response to pleas from hospitals, lawmakers say, to reduce the financial burden of treating uninsured patients.

All states pay hospitals to provide emergency services to some unauthorized residents in emergency rooms, a program known as Emergency Medicaid. About a dozen states have extended coverage for only prenatal care for such people. Full state-provided health insurance coverage is much less common, but increasing.

An estimated half of the people living in the U.S. without authorization are uninsured, according to a KFF-Los Angeles Times survey. That's more than five times the uninsured rate for U.S. citizens. Immigrants lacking authorization are ineligible for federal health programs. But states can use their own money to provide coverage through Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for low-income people.

California was the first state to begin covering immigrants regardless of their legal status, starting with children in 2016.

"This is a real reflection of the conflict we have in the country and how states are realizing we cannot ignore immigrant communities simply because of their immigration status," said Adriana Cadena, director of the advocacy group Protecting Immigrant Families. Many of the millions of people without permanent legal residency have been in the United States for decades and have no path to citizenship, she said.

These state extensions of health coverage come against a backdrop of rising hostility toward migrants among Republicans. The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended nearly 1.5 million people in fiscal year 2023 after they crossed the southern border, a record. GOP presidential candidates have portrayed the border as in crisis under Biden, and dangers of illegal immigration, like increasing crime, as the nation's top domestic concern.

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow specializing in immigration issues with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said states would regret expanding coverage to immigrants lacking permanent legal residency because of the cost. Illinois, he noted, recently paused enrollment in its program over financial concerns.

"We need to share resources with people who contribute to society and not have people take benefits for those who have not contributed, as I don't see how the math would work in the long run," Hankinson said. "Otherwise, you create an incentive for people to come and get free stuff."

Most adults lacking authorization work, accounting for about 5% of the U.S. labor force, according to the Pew Research Center. The state with the most unauthorized residents with state-provided health insurance is California, which currently covers about 655,000 immigrants without regard for their legal status. In January, it will expand coverage to people ages 26-49 regardless of their immigration status, benefiting an estimated 700,000 additional Californians.

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Washington state also provide full coverage to some people living in the U.S. without authorization. New York and Washington state are expanding eligibility next year.

Oregon, Colorado, and New Jersey in recent years began covering more than 100,000 people in total regardless of legal status. Minnesota will follow in 2025, covering an estimated 40,000 people.

While states are expanding coverage to people living in the U.S. potentially without authorization, some are imposing enrollment limits to control spending.

The cost of Utah's program is capped at $4.5 million a year, limiting enrollment to about 2,000 children. Premiums will vary based on income but cost no more than $300 a year, with preventive services covered in full.

"The pandemic highlighted the need to have coverage for everybody," said Ciriac Alvarez Valle, senior policy analyst for Voices for Utah Children, an advocacy group. "It will make a huge impact on the lives of these kids."

Without coverage, many children use emergency rooms for primary care and have little ability to afford drugs, specialists, or hospital care, she said. "I am not sure if this will open the door to adults having coverage, but it is a good step forward," Alvarez Valle said.

Colorado also limits enrollment for subsidized coverage in its program, capping it at 10,000 people in 2023 and 11,000 in 2024. The 2024 discounted slots were booked up within two days of enrollment beginning in November.

Adriana Miranda was able to secure coverage both years.

"You feel so much more at ease knowing that you're not going to owe so much to the hospitals," said Miranda, 46, who is enrolled in a private plan through OmniSalud, a program similar to the state's Obamacare marketplace in which low-income Coloradans without legal residency can shop for plans with discounted premiums.

Miranda left Mexico in 1999 to follow her two brothers to the United States. She now works at Lamar Unidos, a nonprofit immigrant rights group.

Before she had health insurance, she struggled to pay for care for her diabetes and racked up thousands of dollars of debt following foot surgery, she said. Under the state program, she doesn't pay a monthly premium due to her low income, with a $40 copay for specialist visits.

"I was really happy, right? Because I was able to get it. But I know a lot of people who also have a lot of need couldn't get it," she said.

OmniSalud covers only a small fraction of the more than 200,000 people living in Colorado without authorization, said Adam Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. But starting in 2025, all low-income children will be able to be covered by the state's Medicaid or the related Children's Health Insurance Program, regardless of immigration status.

"There is a growing acknowledgement that people regardless of their immigration status are part of the community and should have access to health care in a regular, reliable manner," Fox said. "If they don't, it adds costs and trauma to the health systems and communities."

KFF Health News senior audio producer Zach Dyer contributed to this report.

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

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Immigrants without legal status get public health insurance in more states : Shots - Health News - NPR