President Donald Trump is one step closer to signing the immigration-related legislation into law after the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate passed the Laken Riley Act, making it the first piece of legislation to pass the upper chamber of the new Congress.

Forty-six Democrats crossed party lines in voting to pass a bill requiring undocumented immigrants arrested for violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.

The US Congress has passed a bill requiring undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial. The bill, named after Laken Riley - a Georgia nursing student murdered last year by a Venezuelan man - passed the House of Representatives a day after it was approved by the Senate.