Rep. Mann Votes to Protect Americans from Preventable Crimes
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Tracey Mann (KS-01) voted to advance H.R. 29, the Laken Riley Act. The bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 264-159, requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal immigrants who commit crimes and to detain them until they are removed from the country. Laken Riley was a 22-year-old college student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant, Jose Ibarra, on the University of Georgia campus in February 2024.
In September 2022, Ibarra was arrested for illegally crossing into the United States but was released into the country and sent to New York. Ibarra was arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in August 2023 for child endangerment but was eventually released and relocated to Georgia. A month later, Ibarra received a misdemeanor for shoplifting in Georgia. Despite his criminal history, Ibarra was never detained by ICE or deported from the United States. Rep. Mann released the following statement after the vote.
“Since day one, President Biden has refused to enforce the laws at our nation’s borders,” said Rep. Mann. “Under his failed leadership, every state has become a border state, and nearly 16 million illegal immigrants have entered the country without proper vetting or background checks. If President Biden simply chose to enforce the law, the senseless murder of Laken Riley could have been prevented. This nonsense is exactly what Americans rejected on Election Day. We can and should make illegal immigration harder, not easier. I proudly voted for the Laken Riley Act to enforce the law and make our nation safe again. This is the right thing to do, and I look forward to working with the incoming Trump Administration to enforce our immigration laws once and for all.”
Rep. Mann has continuously voted to hold the Biden Administration accountable for not enforcing the law at our nation’s borders. In February 2024, Rep. Mann voted to impeach U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for willingly refusing to comply with America’s immigration laws. In September 2024, Rep. Mann urged the nation to reject four more years of the Biden-Harris Administration’s border policies and to support President Trump’s. In May 2023, Rep. Mann voted to advance H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, the only immigration bill to pass a chamber in the 118th Congress.
H.R. 29 will now go to the U.S. Senate for further consideration.
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