The House will gather Tuesday afternoon to vote on the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. If passed, it would allow federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants guilty of theft-related crimes and give states the ability to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.

The bill passed the House in the 118th Congress with 37 Democrats supporting it but was never brought to the floor in the Senate. Now with a Republican-controlled Congress and a trifecta on the way thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s win, the Laken Riley Act is almost certain to become law.

“When we brought this bill forward last Congress, it’s shocking, amazingly, 170 House Democrats voted against that legislation,” Johnson said during a press conference. “We’re going to detain and deport illegal aliens who commit burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, and certainly vicious and violent crimes. And I can’t believe anybody would be opposed to that.”

“As Democrats struggle with their identity now as a party, postelection, we’ll find out if they’re still clinging to that open border policy and that mantra, and despite the American people roundly rejecting all that in the record, we’ll see this will be a telling vote,” the speaker added.

In the wake of the 2024 election, Democrats have been forced into a period of reflection and restructuring after Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss and the party’s loss of control of the Senate. Several Democrats have admitted that border security and the economy took center stage and that their messaging on those issues missed the mark with key voting blocs, including working-class voters.

In a speech on the House floor Friday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) promised that the Democrats would work with “anyone” to “secure our borders, and we will work with anyone to fix our broken immigration system in a comprehensive and bipartisan manner.”

“At the same period of time, at the same period of time, we will push back against far-right extremism whenever necessary,” Jeffries said.

Many Democrats who are against the Laken Riley Act have pointed instead to a bipartisan Senate border security and foreign aid bill that Trump told Republicans to kill so he could use immigration reform as the centerpiece of his reelection campaign.

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It is likely that more Democrats will cast a vote for the Laken Riley Act than in the last session, particularly from new members who represent swing districts. However, a House Democratic whip notice told members that Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) “strongly opposes” the bill.

“I was heartened when Leader Jeffries, in his opening remarks, before he introduced me to give my speaker’s speech, that he noted the border and other things,” Johnson said. “We’ll see — it can’t be just empty rhetoric. It’s got to be action, and we’re going to give them the opportunity to take action.”