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Texas Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have issued two bills that, if passed by Congress, would empower the federal government to seek to have undocumented migrants convicted of murder put to death in all 50 states, including those in which executions are currently banned.
The “Justice for Victims of Illegal Alien Murders Act” in the House and the “Justice for American Victims of Illegal Aliens Act” in the Senate are ultimately likely to be combined into one legislative package and would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order in January seeking justice for American citizens killed by perpetrators who arrived in the country unlawfully.
“Violent predators who enter our country illegally and brutally murder American citizens should be subject to the death penalty as a consequence of their heinous actions,” said Senator John Cornyn in a statement introducing the upper chamber’s bill, co-signed by a dozen of his GOP peers.
“This legislation would protect the American people, make our country safe again, and ensure no future president can single-handedly undo this consequence for taking innocent lives.”
Representative Morgan Luttrell said in his own statement that the bill seeks to close a “dangerous loophole” by ending jurisdictional inconsistencies in the administration of capital punishment.
“This bill gives us the authority to deliver justice when local prosecutors simply don’t have the tools, manpower, or funding to take on a high-profile death penalty case,” he said.
“If you’re in this country illegally and you murder an innocent American, you will be held fully accountable no matter where the crime happens.”
The proposed laws follow on from Trump’s “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety” order, directing his Justice Department to seek the death penalty in murder cases involving undocumented migrants.
“These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes,” the president’s order read.
His call was inspired by cases like the killings of Maryland mother-of-five Rachel Morin in August 2023, nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia in February 2024 and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungary in Houston the following June, which led Trump to denounce “migrant crime” during last year’s presidential election campaign and demand tighter border control measures and tougher penalties.
His Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attracted criticism this week after delivering a speech outside the former home of another woman, Emma Shafer, 24, in Springfield, Illinois, who Noem said was killed by an undocumented migrant, a gesture that led her grieving parents to denounce the secretary as “cruel and heartless” for politicizing their daughter’s tragic passing.
On the new bills potentially putting the federal government at odds with states that oppose capital punishment, Erin Epley, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Texas, told Fox 26 Houston that the practice is rare and that only 16 federal executions have been carried out since 1976.
“I do not think the U.S. will move forward with the death penalty in every case involving an illegal immigrant,” she said.
“But it gives them the ability to do that. You look at if it’s on a federal nexus, on federal land, it was the murder of a federal agent.”
English (US) ·