Laken Riley Act
United States law signed in 2025
The Laken Riley Act is a United States federal statute that requires the detention, without bond, of non-citizens who are arrested for, charged with, or admit to committing certain crimes, including theft, burglary, larceny, shoplifting, assault on a law enforcement officer, or any crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury, such as drunk driving. The Act also allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for alleged failures in immigration enforcement against United States v. Texas (2023).
The bill was introduced following the murder of Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant who had previously been cited for shoplifting on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Congressmen Mike Collins (who represents the area where Laken Riley was murdered) introduced the bill to the House. On January 22, 2025, the House agreed to the Senate's version of the bill with a 263–156 vote. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on January 29, 2025.
Background
On February 22, 2024, Georgia resident Laken Riley was murdered by José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan 26-year-old man, who had entered the United States illegally in September 2022 by crossing the United States' southern border with Mexico near El Paso, Texas. Before the murder, Ibarra had been charged with "acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation" in New York City for "driving a scooter without a license and with a child who was not wearing a helmet." In 2023, he was arrested on charges of shoplifting in Athens, Georgia.
The murder gained attention from both politicians and the media because Ibarra entered the United States illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.
The public source identifies “Laken Riley Act” as united States law signed in 2025. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Laken, Riley and United.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131837607. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2023, 2025, 2024 and 2022.
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This entry incorporates text from “Laken Riley Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.