Lankford Calls for Passage of Laken Riley Act, Urges Continued Work to Secure Border

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WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Republican Conference Vice Chair, hosted a messaging hour on the Senate floor for his Republican colleagues and delivered remarks calling on the Senate to pass the Laken Riley Act. 

Excerpts

You’ll see for the next hour a whole group of Republicans coming to the floor to be able to talk about one issue—our need for border security and safer communities. This is something not just Republicans in the Senate are talking about. This is something the American people spoke loud and clear about during the last election, when they elected President Trump, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House.

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Some Americans are familiar with Laken Riley’s story, some are not. Laken Riley was a college student in Georgia who was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan who came into the United States illegally, was detained at the border, but then released, traveled around the country wherever he wanted to under a ‘parole system’ that was given to him at the border in 2022. He committed a crime, was arrested for that crime, and then was released. He committed another crime, shoplifting, was arrested for that crime, and then released. The third crime, as far as we know—there might have been many more—but the third crime, as far as we know, was his murder of Laken Riley. He should have never been in the United States.

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The Laken Riley Act is pretty simple. It says if someone is here illegally and they commit a crime in the United States, stealing Americans’ stuff like he did, that he’s deported. I don’t think it’s a radical concept to be able to say, ‘Americans don’t want someone to come into the country illegally and take their stuff.’ Why this is even a challenge to be able to pass this, I have no idea.

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I’m willing to be able to talk to any one of my Democratic or Republican colleagues that have a question about this, but at the base of this is, why would we let someone who was already illegally present in the country, who we already know has committed additional crimes, just continue to walk our streets just to commit more crimes? Why would we not detain those individuals? On Monday, President Trump will be inaugurated. I am looking forward to working with him and seeing even what happens on day one to be able to secure the border. This is something the American people want. They want a border that is secure. They want communities that are secure, and they want just basic common sense things done.

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