Sen John Fetterman slams fellow Democrats for not supporting Laken Riley Act

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the only Senate Democrat cosponsoring Republican-led legislation that would require federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants arrested for theft-related crimes, slammed his fellow Democrats for opposing the bill.

He told Fox News on Monday after the Laken Riley Act passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, despite 159 Democrats voting against it, “We have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrants here illegally that have (been) convicted of crimes… who wants to defend that, to allow them to remain in our nation after that. And now if you're here illegally and you're committing crimes and those things, I don't know why anybody thinks that it's controversial that they all need to go.”

Host Brett Baier asked Fetterman if he thought crimes committed by illegal immigrants were one of the biggest issues for the 2024 election, to which the Pennsylvania Senator responded, "If we can't pull up with 7 votes, at least 7 out of 47 [from Democrat Senators] - that's a reason why we lost."

The legislation was named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was murdered while jogging at the University of Georgia. Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant with gang ties who had previously been released after an arrest for stealing from a Walmart store, has been charged with her murder

The bill is scheduled to come up for a Senate vote on Friday. The legislation will also allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.

The legislation needs at least seven Democrats to join Republicans for the bill to be taken up by the Senate. So far, Fetterman is the only Democratic senator to indicate support for the bill publicly.