Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the federal government was not appraised by state and local governments about the criminal activity of Laken Riley’s killer.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, an undocumented Venezuelan migrant accused of murdering Riley, was initially apprehended by US Border Patrol on Sept. 8, 2022, before being released on parole. Afterward, he was allegedly involved in two criminal incidents before the alleged slaying of Riley.
“Different cities have different levels of cooperation. We were not notified in this instance,” Mayorkas told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
The two incidents for which Ibarra was arrested include one for illegally driving a scooter in New York without a license in August and another in connection with a shoplifting case out of Georgia.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Georgia in Athens, was violently murdered during her morning run on Feb. 22, according to authorities.
Several cities, including the Big Apple, have “sanctuary city” policies that limit cooperation with federal authorities enforcing US immigration laws.
Athens officials have publicly debated about whether or not it’s a sanctuary city.
Mayorkas was initially slow to claim that the federal government was not notified of Ibarra’s activities during his “Face the Nation” appearance. It took repeated questions from host Margaret Brennan to admit that there was no cooperation.
Many Republican critics have groused about how Ibarra was released via parole, a process used when Border Patrol is overwhelmed, and that he was not deported after allegedly committing crimes before Riley’s murder.
“An absolute tragedy. And our hearts break for and our prayers are with the family,” Mayorkas said of Riley’s murder. “We firmly believe that if a city is aware of an individual who poses a threat to public safety, then we would request that they provide us with that information.”
“As a prosecutor, having prosecuted violent crime and other crimes for 12 years, one individual is responsible for the murder, and that is the murderer.”
Riley’s murder has become a political flashpoint and rallying cry for many critics of the Biden administration’s border security policies.
Mayorkas accompanied Biden during his visit to Brownsville, Texas, while former President Donald Trump was roughly 300 miles away in El Paso last Thursday.
In January, there were an estimated 176,205 migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border, down from the record 301,9983 encounters in December, according to US Customs and Border Patrol figures.
Mayorkas has echoed Biden’s gripes against Republicans on Capitol Hill for tanking a bipartisan deal to tackle the border issue several weeks back.
Last month, the GOP-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas on allegations of dereliction of duty. He demurred when asked how he wanted the Senate to dismiss the trial outright.
“I’m gonna let the Senate, of course, execute its responsibilities as it thinks best in the service of our country. I am going to focus on the work,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.