WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on Tuesday. This allows federal authorities to have broader power to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have been accused of crimes. He also announced that his administration is planning to send “the worst criminal aliens” to a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This also includes tens of thousands of people who cannot be sent back to their home countries.
This bipartisan act, the first piece of legislation approved during Trump’s second term, was named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered while out for a run last year. She was murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan man who had entered the U.S. illegally. He was sentenced to a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The U.S. has leased the land that Guantanamo sits on from Cuba for over a century. However, Cuba opposes the lease and will typically reject the titular U.S. rent payments. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Trump planning to ship immigrants to the island is “an act of brutality.”
“The US government’s decision to imprison migrants at the Guantanamo Naval Base, in an enclave where it created torture and indefinite detention centers, shows contempt for the human condition and international law,” Rodriguez wrote in a post on X.
Under this new law, federal officials would have to detain any immigrant arrested or charged with crimes such as theft or assaulting a police officer or offenses that injure or kill someone. State attorney generals could sue the U.S. government for harm caused by federal immigration decisions—potentially allowing the leaders of conservative states to help assist with the immigration policy set by Washington.
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