When the U.S. House of Representatives first approved the Laken Riley Act in March, then Rep. Elissa Slotkin was among 37 Democrats and nearly all Republicans who approved the bill to require detention for illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes.

The legislation ultimately stalled in the Democratic controlled Senate, and Republicans and 48 Democrats on Tuesday returned the legislation to the upper chamber as the first order of business in the 119^th Congress.

But Sen. Slotkin, a Democrat from Holly, Mich. who was elevated to the Senate by voters last November, is now waffling on her prior support as a Republican Senate majority prepares to take up the measure on Friday.

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“Newly elected Sen. Slotkin – who backed Laken Riley Act in House in March 24 – won’t commit to voting for it in the Senate,” Max Cohen, congressional reporter for Punch Bowl News, posted to X on Tuesday. “She tells us she’s still staffing up and hasn’t made a decision yet on how to vote.”

The Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia woman murdered by an illegal immigrant with prior arrests, would require detention of illegal immigrants charged with theft or burglary – crimes allegedly committed by Riley’s murderer, Venezuelan Jose Ibarra, before he brutally murdered the nursing student.

Ibarra is now serving life in prison for Riley’s murder.

Slotkin’s yes vote on the Laken Riley Act in March came about two weeks before a similar murder in Michigan, where previously deported Mexican national Brandon Ortiz-Vite unloaded his illegally purchased handgun on Grand Rapids’ Ruby Garcia.

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Ortiz-Vite, who was deported during Trump’s first term following a string of crimes including breaking and entering, dumped Garcia’s body on the shoulder of US-131 and fled in her vehicle, before eventually turning himself in and confessing to the crime.

Much like Riley’s case, the murder, at the time the second within a year committed by an illegal immigrant in Grand Rapids, sparked heated debate over the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies, with Republicans including President-elect Donald Trump pointing to the case as an example of the consequences of millions illegally crossing the southern border.

Slotkin did not acknowledge Garcia’s murder for days, and when she finally did, the Democratic congresswoman attempted to downplay the tragedy as simply one of many domestic violence incidents in the region.

“It’s a terrible, horrible, gruesome death on top of a number of domestic violence incidents we’re having in that area,” she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “You have a terrible murder of a young woman, then you have a former president coming in saying ‘it’s all about the border and border security,’ but he won’t let us actually deal with the border.”

The Laken Riley Act, which cleared the House Tuesday with a vote of 264-159, now heads to a Republican majority in the Senate that’s seven votes short of the 60-vote threshold needed to approve legislation without Democratic support. And because Republican West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice delayed his swearing in until next week to conclude his current term as governor, Republicans would need eight votes to send the legislation to the White House, CNN reports.

Senate Democrats, including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Gary Peters of Michigan, have already signaled support, while others including Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona may also, according to the news site.

“We must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law, to prevent situations like what occurred to Laken Riley,” Gallego said in a statement cited by Politico.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, told members on Tuesday the caucus may engage with Republicans to secure amendments to the bill, sources familiar with the meeting told Axios.

Senate Democrats are scheduled to meet again on Thursday, the news site reports.