The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly cleared a key procedural hurdle toward passing the Laken Riley Act, a bill aimed at curbing crime by migrants, in the first vote of the year by the chamber.

Senators cleared the first vote 84 to 9, with 33 Senate Democrats — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — joining with every Republican present to vote “yes.” The legislation would mandate federal detention of immigrants without legal status accused of theft, burglary and other related crimes. 

“The Laken Riley Act presents the Senate a simple choice: Are you willing to allow illegal immigrant criminals to roam free in our country? Or do you want to save American lives?” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on the Senate floor before the vote.

“Protecting Americans from the dangers of a broken border makes sense to most of our citizens,” he added. 

Thursday marked the first step in a string of votes before the bill could become law. Senate Republicans are expecting a number of amendment votes on the item next week. 

The tally comes only two days after the House cleared the same measure with 48 Democrats voting in support. 

Riley, a Georgia college student, was killed in February by a Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested for shoplifting ahead of the attack and paroled in the country. Thursday’s vote took place the day before Riley’s birthday.

A number of Democrats had indicated heading into the procedural vote that they would also vote for the bill in its current form on final passage, with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) signing on as co-sponsors. 

Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Jon Ossoff (Ga.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) all also indicated they would vote for the bill in its current form. 

“On the first day of the 119th Congress, my good friend, Republican Leader Thune, said he wants to make the Senate a place ‘where all members should have a chance to make their voices …heard.’ Well, this bill would be a fine place to start,” Schumer said ahead of the vote. 

“We should allow debate and amendments on the bill. This is an important issue. We should have a debate and amendments,” he said, reminding his colleagues that this wasn’t a vote on final passage. “This is a motion to proceed, a vote that says we should have a debate, and should have amendments.”

As Schumer indicated, however, concerns remain plentiful on the Democratic side.

Multiple senators told The Hill ahead of the vote that they were concerned about provisions in the bill that would give state attorneys general more “room to interfere” with federal immigration policy, as Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) put it. 

Others had questions about the requirement of detainment upon arrest rather than conviction, and about how to pay for the bill. 

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted against moving the bill. 

Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) did not vote. 

Republicans have made it clear that border security and illegal immigration are among their top priorities after winning the White House and full control of Congress in November. 

The GOP is also expected to pay particular attention to border-related matters in their reconciliation efforts in the coming months, regardless if they tackle it in one massive bill or two separate packages. 

Across the aisle, the bill also gave Democrats an opportunity fresh out of the election to stake ground on border security, an issue that gave them agita throughout the 2024 election cycle. 

The party tried to use the bipartisan border security bill against President-elect Trump and conservatives by attacking them consistently for killing the bill after months of negotiations.