The Senate voted on Friday to invoke cloture on the Laken Riley Act, a bill requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain non-citizens charged with theft-related offenses in the United States.

The bill seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, requiring the DHS to detain non-citizens charged with offenses such as theft, burglary, larceny, and shoplifting. The bill also mandates that the DHS issue detainers for such individuals and take them into custody if they are not already detained by state or local authorities. Additionally, it allows state attorneys general to bring legal actions against federal agencies for failing to enforce these requirements.

The bill was first introduced on March 1, 2024, when it passed the House with bipartisan support but stalled in the Senate. The bill was then reintroduced and the first bill passed in the 119th Congress on January 7. The bill was approved for consideration one week after its reintroduction in the Senate on January 6, and cloture was invoked four days later.

A cloture motion is a procedural vote in the Senate used to limit debate on a bill or motion and advance it toward final consideration. The motion requires a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes, to pass, and in this case, it succeeded with 61 senators voting in favor, 35 against, and three not voting.

Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have strongly opposed the bill, arguing that it undermines due process and public safety by expanding mandatory detention for nonviolent offenses. ACLU also argued that the bill, if comes into effect, will disproportionately affect children, longtime residents, and others without conviction or due process. Reacting to the bill’s cloture on Friday, Sarah Mehta, the ACLU’s senior border policy counsel, stated:

This is an extreme and reactive bill that will authorize the largest expansion of mandatory detention we have seen in decades, sweeping in children, DREAMers, parents of US citizen children, and other longtime members of their communities who even ICE thinks should not be detained.

Friday’s cloture of the bill allows the Senate to move toward a final vote currently scheduled for Monday.