The illegal immigrant on trial for allegedly murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley earlier this year received a taxpayer-funded stay at a fancy hotel in New York City and a subsequent flight to Atlanta, Georgia.
The roommate of suspected murderer Jose Antonio Ibarra testified at his criminal trial Monday and revealed that Ibarra stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan before taking a “humanitarian flight” to Atlanta last fall with her.
Through a translator, Rosebeli Flores-Bello said they left the Roosevelt Hotel for Atlanta around September 10 of last year and flew into the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. From there, they went to an apartment in Athens, Georgia where Ibarra lived and was later arrested.
Last year, New York City turned the once opulent Roosevelt Hotel into a processing center for hordes of illegal immigrants arriving into the Big Apple. The iconic Madison Avenue hotel received significant national attention for being symbol of the crisis at the southern border and the Biden administration’s disjointed response.
At the hotel, illegal immigrants were provided meals, medical care, and assistance with paperwork for asylum applications. The migrant processing center was set up during a time when New York City’s government services were being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the area.
A Venezuelan woman who recently arrived to the U.S., Flores-Bello said she originally went to New York with her partner and met Ibarra through her mother-in-law. She had known him for a month when they arrived in Athens.
She went to Athens because Ibarra’s brother Diego promised that she would be able to find work. Diego Ibarra pleaded guilty in July to possessing a fake green card and is believed to be affiliated with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
By the time they arrived in Athens, Diego was already living in the apartment, Flores-Bello recalled. She ended up finding a job at Wendy’s and a second job at a Korean restaurant. Jose Ibarra and another one of his brothers worked with her at the Korean restaurant.
In February, Ibarra was arrested for brutally killing Riley, 22, while she was jogging around the University of Georgia’s campus. Ibarra’s murder of Riley became a flashpoint in the debate around illegal immigration and the Biden administration’s lax enforcement policy at the southern border.
President Biden mentioned Riley during his State of the Union address a couple weeks later after being heckled by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) to say her name. Biden’s accurate description of Ibarra as an “illegal” drew outrage from progressives who argued Biden should have used different terminology. Their pressure caused Biden to apologize for using the term “illegal” instead of “undocumented” to refer to Ibarra.
Ibarra is facing several charges tied to the killing including felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault with intent to rape, and aggravated battery. He is being accused of “seriously disfiguring” Riley’s head and killing her with blunt force trauma.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and is facing trial by judge. If convicted, he could receive a life sentence.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed in February that Ibarra crossed into the U.S. illegally near El Paso, Texas, and was paroled shortly thereafter. About a year later, he was arrested by the New York City police department for acting in a manner to injure a child and released before ICE could issue a detainer.