Republicans, led by Trump, have consistently hammered Democrats on the US-Mexico border, often using dehumanizing language that the United States was being “invaded.” The bill was named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student killed by Jose Ibarra, who was in the country illegally from Venezuela.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch says he believes Congress has “lost control of the immigration process in this country,” casting Massachusetts’ only yes vote on a bill named after a Georgia nursing

The US Senate has advanced the controversial Laken Riley Act, an anti-immigrant bill mandating the imprisonment of any non-US national charged with theft.