118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7511
AN ACT
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into
custody aliens who have been charged in the United
States with theft, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
•HR 7511 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Laken Riley Act’’. 2
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 3
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds that the Nation— 4
(1) mourns the devastating loss of Laken Riley 5
and other victims of the Biden administration’s open 6
borders policies; 7
(2) honors the life and memory of Laken Riley 8
and other victims of the Biden administration’s open 9
borders policies; and 10
(3) denounces the open-borders policies of 11
President Joe Biden, ‘‘Border Czar’’ Vice President 12
Kamala Harris, Secretary of Homeland Security 13
Alejandro Mayorkas, and other Biden administration 14
officials. 15
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-16
gress that— 17
(1) the Biden administration should not have 18
released Laken Riley’s alleged murderer into the 19
United States; 20
(2) the Biden administration should have ar-21
rested and detained Laken Riley’s alleged murderer 22
after he was charged with crimes in New York, New 23
York, and Athens, Georgia; 24 3
•HR 7511 EH
(3) President Biden should publicly denounce 1
his administration’s immigration policies that re-2
sulted in the murder of Laken Riley; and 3
(4) President Biden should prevent another 4
murder like that of Laken Riley by ending the catch- 5
and-release of illegal aliens, increasing immigration 6
enforcement, detaining and removing criminal aliens, 7
reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, ending his 8
abuse of parole authority, and securing the United 9
States borders. 10
SEC. 3. DETENTION OF CERTAIN ALIENS WHO COMMIT 11
THEFT. 12
Section 236(c) of the Immigration and Nationality 13
Act (8 U.S.C. 1226(c)) is amended— 14
(1) in paragraph (1)— 15
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’; 16
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the 17
comma at the end and inserting ‘‘, or’’; and 18
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (D) 19
the following: 20
‘‘(E)(i) is inadmissible under paragraph 21
(6)(A), (6)(C), or (7) of section 212(a), and 22
‘‘(ii) is charged with, is arrested for, is 23
convicted of, admits having committed, or ad-24
mits committing acts which constitute the es-25 4
•HR 7511 EH
sential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, 1
or shoplifting offense,’’; 2
(2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as para-3
graph (4); and 4
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(2) D
EFINITION.—For purposes of paragraph 7
(1)(E), the terms ‘burglary’, ‘theft’, ‘larceny’, and 8
‘shoplifting’ have the meaning given such terms in 9
the jurisdiction where the acts occurred. 10
‘‘(3) D
ETAINER.—The Secretary of Homeland 11
Security shall issue a detainer for an alien described 12
in paragraph (1)(E) and, if the alien is not other-13
wise detained by Federal, State, or local officials, 14
shall effectively and expeditiously take custody of the 15
alien.’’. 16
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF A 17
STATE. 18
(a) I
NSPECTION OFAPPLICANTS FORADMISSION.— 19
Section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 20
U.S.C. 1225(b)) is amended— 21
(1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-22
graph (4); and 23
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-24
lowing: 25 5
•HR 7511 EH
‘‘(3) ENFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY GENERAL 1
OF A STATE.—The attorney general of a State, or 2
other authorized State officer, alleging a violation of 3
the detention and removal requirements under para-4
graphs (1) or (2) that harms such State or its resi-5
dents shall have standing to bring an action against 6
the Secretary of Homeland Security on behalf of 7
such State or the residents of such State in an ap-8
propriate district court of the United States to ob-9
tain appropriate injunctive relief. The court shall ad-10
vance on the docket and expedite the disposition of 11
a civil action filed under this paragraph to the great-12
est extent practicable. For purposes of this para-13
graph, a State or its residents shall be considered to 14
have been harmed if the State or its residents expe-15
rience harm, including financial harm in excess of 16
$100.’’. 17
(b) A
PPREHENSION AND DETENTION OFALIENS.— 18
Section 236 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 19
U.S.C. 1226), as amended by this Act, is further amend-20
ed— 21
(1) in subsection (e)— 22
(A) by striking ‘‘or release’’; and 23
(B) by striking ‘‘grant, revocation, or de-24
nial’’ and insert ‘‘revocation or denial’’; and 25 6
•HR 7511 EH
(2) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(f) E
NFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEYGENERAL OF A 2
S
TATE.—The attorney general of a State, or other author-3
ized State officer, alleging an action or decision by the 4
Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security 5
under this section to release any alien or grant bond or 6
parole to any alien that harms such State or its residents 7
shall have standing to bring an action against the Attor-8
ney General or Secretary of Homeland Security on behalf 9
of such State or the residents of such State in an appro-10
priate district court of the United States to obtain appro-11
priate injunctive relief. The court shall advance on the 12
docket and expedite the disposition of a civil action filed 13
under this subsection to the greatest extent practicable. 14
For purposes of this subsection, a State or its residents 15
shall be considered to have been harmed if the State or 16
its residents experience harm, including financial harm in 17
excess of $100.’’. 18
(c) P
ENALTIES.—Section 243 of the Immigration 19
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1253) is amended by add-20
ing at the end the following: 21
‘‘(e) E
NFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEYGENERAL OF A 22
S
TATE.—The attorney general of a State, or other author-23
ized State officer, alleging a violation of the requirement 24
to discontinue granting visas to citizens, subjects, nation-25 7
•HR 7511 EH
als, and residents as described in subsection (d) that 1
harms such State or its residents shall have standing to 2
bring an action against the Secretary of State on behalf 3
of such State or the residents of such State in an appro-4
priate district court of the United States to obtain appro-5
priate injunctive relief. The court shall advance on the 6
docket and expedite the disposition of a civil action filed 7
under this subsection to the greatest extent practicable. 8
For purposes of this subsection, a State or its residents 9
shall be considered to have been harmed if the State or 10
its residents experience harm, including financial harm in 11
excess of $100.’’. 12
(d) C
ERTAINCLASSES OF ALIENS.—Section 13
212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 14
U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended— 15
(1) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each place 16
it appears and inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Se-17
curity’’; and 18
(2) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(C) The attorney general of a State, or other au-20
thorized State officer, alleging a violation of the limitation 21
under subparagraph (A) that parole solely be granted on 22
a case-by-case basis and solely for urgent humanitarian 23
reasons or a significant public benefit, that harms such 24
State or its residents shall have standing to bring an ac-25 8
•HR 7511 EH
tion against the Secretary of Homeland Security on behalf 1
of such State or the residents of such State in an appro-2
priate district court of the United States to obtain appro-3
priate injunctive relief. The court shall advance on the 4
docket and expedite the disposition of a civil action filed 5
under this subparagraph to the greatest extent prac-6
ticable. For purposes of this subparagraph, a State or its 7
residents shall be considered to have been harmed if the 8
State or its residents experience harm, including financial 9
harm in excess of $100.’’. 10
(e) D
ETENTION.—Section 241(a)(2) of the Immigra-11
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(a)(2)) is amend-12
ed— 13
(1) by striking ‘‘During the removal period,’’ 14
and inserting the following: 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—During the removal 16
period,’’; and 17
(2) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(B) E
NFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY GEN -19
ERAL OF A STATE.—The attorney general of a 20
State, or other authorized State officer, alleging 21
a violation of the detention requirement under 22
subparagraph (A) that harms such State or its 23
residents shall have standing to bring an action 24
against the Secretary of Homeland Security on 25 9
•HR 7511 EH
behalf of such State or the residents of such 1
State in an appropriate district court of the 2
United States to obtain appropriate injunctive 3
relief. The court shall advance on the docket 4
and expedite the disposition of a civil action 5
filed under this subparagraph to the greatest 6
extent practicable. For purposes of this sub-7
paragraph, a State or its residents shall be con-8
sidered to have been harmed if the State or its 9
residents experience harm, including financial 10
harm in excess of $100.’’. 11
(f) L
IMIT ONINJUNCTIVERELIEF.—Section 242(f) 12
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 13
1252(f)) is amended by adding at the end following: 14
‘‘(3) C
ERTAIN ACTIONS.—Paragraph (1) shall 15
not apply to an action brought pursuant to section 16
235(b)(3), subsections (e) or (f) of section 236, or 17
section 241(a)(2)(B).’’. 18
Passed the House of Representatives March 7,
2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 7511
AN ACT
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to
take into custody aliens who have been charged
in the United States with theft, and for other
purposes.