WASHINGTON

The US Senate voted Monday to pass the Laken Riley Act on President Donald Trump's inauguration day.

Senators voted 64-35 on the bill, which requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take into custody immigrants without legal status who have been charged in the US with theft, burglary and for other purposes.

The measure will now move to the House of Representatives for a final vote before heading to Trump's desk.

It will be on track to be the first bill passed out of the 119th Congress.

"This legislation will ensure that illegal aliens who steal or assault a law enforcement officer are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of being allowed out on the streets," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor.

"I’m looking forward to getting this legislation to the president’s desk," he added.

The bill is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was murdered in Georgia last year by a migrant who was in the US illegally.

Riley's murder drew national attention to the immigration debate after officials announced that her killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, was a Venezuelan citizen who had illegally entered the country at the US-Mexico border in 2022.

Trump and the Republican Party used Riley's death as part of their campaign’s rallying cry during the presidential election to demand stricter immigration policies at the southern border.