The murder of Augusta University student Laken Riley on Thursday has quickly become a national political issue by Republicans—and especially Donald Trump—after the accused killer was identified as an undocumented Venezuelan migrant who entered the country through the southern border, and remained at large despite allegedly two previous encounters with law enforcement.
This photo, provided by the Clarke County Sheriff's Office, shows Jose Ibarra, 26, on Friday, Feb. ... [+]
Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, was found dead Thursday afternoon with blunt force trauma wounds after going out for a jog on the University of Georgia campus.
Jose Ibarra, 26, was arrested by University of Georgia police Friday and charged with seven felonies, including malice murder—and multiple outlets have reported that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson has said Ibarra was also arrested last August in New York for driving an unregistered car with a child inside.
The New York Police Department said it has no record of Ibarra’s reported arrest, but the New York Post reports that unnamed police sources claim he was arrested in Queens for riding a moped with his wife’s 5-year-old son on the back and that the records don’t exist because the case is sealed.
Trump responded by blaming Biden, claiming a “Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens” and promising the “largest deportation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History” if he’s re-elected, he wrote in a series of Truth Social posts Monday.
Ibarra, an undocumented migrant from Venezuela, illegally crossed the border near El Paso, Texas, and was arrested by Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 8, 2022, before he was paroled and released while his immigration case is pending, an ICE spokesperson told multiple outlets.
University of Georgia police on Friday accused Ibarra, who lived less than two miles from where Riley’s body was found, of acting alone and said he did not know Riley prior to the killing, describing it as a “crime of opportunity.”
Republicans have seized on Riley’s murder to underscore their criticism of Biden’s border policies. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp demanded Biden provide information on “who is entering this country illegally and where they’re being released . . . so we don’t lose even more innocent lives like Laken Riley’s.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused “Joe Biden, [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and the Democrats” of having “blood on their hands” because of Riley’s murder. And Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake blamed the killing on “corrupt DC politicians like [Joe Biden] and [Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)],” who is running against her for the Senate.
Ibarra’s wife, Layling Franco, told the New York Post the couple and her 5-year-old son stayed briefly in El Paso after they were stopped by border police and were then bused to New York City. When the couple broke up, Ibarra moved to Georgia to live with his brother Diego, Franco reportedly said. The Justice Department charged Ibarra’s brother, Diego, 29, with possessing a fake green card after he was questioned by local police in connection with Riley’s murder because he matched the description of the suspect, federal officials said.
Riley’s murder comes as illegal immigration has taken center stage in the 2024 election following a historic surge in border crossings during Biden’s tenure. Biden has blamed the border security issues on Republicans for refusing to pass the bipartisan Senate deal to tighten border controls, legislation Trump urged the GOP to block, arguing it would be a “gift” to Democrats in an election year. Trump, meanwhile, has promised mass arrests of undocumented migrants if he is elected and has used increasingly incendiary rhetoric to refer to illegal immigrants on the campaign trail.
The crime rate among native-born U.S. citizens is substantially higher than it is among undocumented immigrants. U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and more than four times more likely to be arrested for property crimes, according to a study of arrest data from the Texas Department of Public Safety by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Biden and Trump are planning competing visits at the southern border in Texas Thursday. Trump is expected to visit Eagle Pass and Biden plans to travel to Brownsville, marking only his second visit to the southern border since he took office.