Washington [US], January 24: The Republican-controlled US Congress handed President Donald Trump an early victory in his crackdown on illegal immigration on January 22, passing a bill to expand pretrial detention for foreign criminal suspects.
The bill, known as the Laken Riley Act, was passed by the US Senate by a vote of 64-35 earlier this week, followed by the US House of Representatives by a vote of 263-256. The passage of the bill comes as President Trump has vowed to make an immigration crackdown a centerpiece of his agenda. Although the bill has now passed Congress, there are still hurdles ahead as the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has warned that it cannot fully enforce the order within its current resources.
Also on January 22, the Trump administration directed US prosecutors to conduct criminal investigations into state and local officials who obstructed immigration enforcement efforts . In addition, acting US Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said the US military will provide flights for the Department of Homeland Security to deport more than 5,000 immigrants detained by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
In another development, President Trump on January 22 continued to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit at the negotiating table to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. "If there is no agreement, I will have no choice but to impose higher tariffs and sanctions on anything Russia sells to the United States, as well as other participating countries," Mr. Trump shared on the social network Truth Social. Mr. Trump's recent tough statements towards Russia have raised the prospect of an end to the conflict in Ukraine in the near future.
Responding to Trump's statement, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said Moscow would wait and determine what a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine would look like for the US leader. "The first and most important issue is to resolve the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis," Reuters quoted Polyanskiy as saying.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
