A president can accomplish a lot through executive actions, only to later watch it all be undone with relative ease by a successor, but more lasting achievements for a president can be won with the help of legislation passed by Congress.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump won the first major long-term victory of his second term with the signing of the Laken Riley Act, according to The New York Times.

The bill, named after a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal migrant from Venezuela, requires the federal government to detain and deport illegal migrants charged with or convicted of certain criminal acts, among other things.

Bipartisan Congress passed the Laken Riley Act

S. 5, the Laken Riley Act, was passed by the Republican-led Senate with bipartisan support on Inauguration Day with a vote of 64-35, after which it was sent to the Republican-led House for consideration.

The bill was similarly passed by the lower chamber just a couple of days later with a bipartisan vote of 263-156. It was then sent the next day to the White House to become a law with President Trump's signature, which it finally received on Wednesday.

The law requires federal immigration officials to detain and deport any illegal migrant who is arrested and charged with or admits to or is convicted of certain crimes including "burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, or assault of a law enforcement officer offense, or any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person."

The law also allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government over certain deliberate violations of or failures to adhere to the law's provisions on detention and removal of criminal illegal migrants, if such violations or failures resulted in harm to a state or its citizens and residents.

Trump signs the bill into law

The law signed on Wednesday by President Trump was named for Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who'd been out for a jog last year when she was brutally beaten and murdered by an illegal migrant from Venezuela who'd been previously arrested and charged with other crimes but never detained and deported by federal officials.

Riley's murder sparked outrage and exposed the egregiously lax enforcement of border security and existing immigration laws by the Biden-Harris administration, and arguably helped propel President Trump and Republicans to electoral victory in November.

The innocent victim's family was present for the bill signing ceremony and Trump took a few moments to address them directly, consoling them for their painful loss but comforting them with the fact that Riley's tragic death had led to a "landmark law" that would "save countless innocent American lives."

The president also highlighted the losses of several other "angel families," or the grieving families of innocent U.S. citizens killed by illegal migrants, and lamented, "The very government that was supposed to protect their daughters instead opened our borders and transported the world’s most dangerous criminals straight into their communities."

None of this should be necessary

Laken Riley never should have been murdered by an illegal migrant who never should have been allowed to enter the country in the first place, much less be permitted to remain to re-offend with the lethal attack on Riley after being previously arrested and charged with various other criminal acts.

This new law will help reduce such incidents in the future by requiring federal officials to detain and deport illegal migrants accused or convicted of various crimes and ensures the federal government adheres to those requirements by empowering state attorneys general to hold the federal government accountable with lawsuits.