A US Congressional Vote That Was NOT Razor Thin -- Passed By A Huge Margin -- January 7, 2025

Locator: 44637TRUMP. 

"Trump politics" are tracked here. This is not new. I did the same with the Bush II administration ("a lost decade") and the Obama administration ("another lost decade"). I didn't do as much with the Biden administration because it was pretty much a lame duck administration from the very beginning and acted as such.

Many who voted against this bill had at least two things in common:

• if they run for re-election in two years, they are assured of victory regardless of how they vote on any matter; and,
• they were ready to vote FOR the deportation bill if that's what it would have taken to get it passed.

Every member of the GOP in the US House voted for this bill. 

Forty-eight Democrats voted for this bill.

Headline:

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/us/house-bill-migrants-crime-laken-riley.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20250107&instance_id=144092&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=50031340&segment_id=187554&user_id=f8789ca5619fb2f72b13cf4446d65dd0.

Lede: 

The House passed a bill on Tuesday that would target undocumented immigrants charged with nonviolent crimes for deportation, an opening salvo from a Republican majority that has vowed to deliver on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s promised crackdown at the border.

The measure, which drew the support of 48 Democrats as well as all Republicans, appears to be on a path to enactment, having garnered bipartisan backing in the Senate, which plans to take it up on Friday. It is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed last year in Georgia by a migrant who had crossed into the United States illegally and was arrested and charged with shoplifting, but was not detained.

The quick action reflected how Republicans in Congress, emboldened by the governing trifecta they will hold when Mr. Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, are using their power to revive and pass a raft of border security measures that died during the last Congress in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Those include bills to 

• increase deportations, 
• hold asylum applicants outside of the United States; and,
•  strip federal funding from cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities.

I find it amazing that these bills died under the Biden administration. On the other hand, it gives Trump some easy, early wins. And it's a gut check for vulnerable politicos who might vote against such bills.