By Megan Lebowitz—
NBC News
Republican politicians at the state and national level are citing the death of a young woman on the University of Georgia campus to push for more border control, after an undocumented immigrant was charged with the murder of the student, Laken
Riley
, 22 years.
José Antonio Ibarra
, a Venezuelan who had already been detained by federal authorities after crossing the border into the United States, was arrested in connection with the murder of Riley, a student at the Augusta University School of Nursing, last week.
Republicans have blamed his death on President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
Former President Donald Trump wrote about Ibarra and Riley on his social network Truth Social on Monday, saying he would “immediately seal the border” if he returned to the White House.
Laken Riley, left, with Bianca Tiller, her former roommate, during her freshman year at the University of Georgia.Courtesy Bianca Tiller
“The monster that took his life entered our country illegally in 2022…and then was released AGAIN by radical Democrats in New York after hurting a CHILD!” Trump said.
“When I am your president, we will immediately seal the border, stop the invasion and, on day one, begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History!” he added.
The suspect's background
Ibarra, who lived in Athens, where the University of Georgia is based, had been detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on September 8, 2022, after entering the country.
He was placed on probation and released for further processing, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The governor of Georgia, Republican Brian Kemp, also took advantage of Riley's death to criticize the Biden Administration.
UGA students at a vigil for student Laken Riley, Monday, February 26, 2024.Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network via Reuters
“It is outrageous that we continue to have no idea who enters this country illegally and where they are released,” Kemp said Sunday on the social network so we don't lose even more innocent lives like Laken Riley."
Riley's body was found Thursday after a friend reported her missing after she did not return from a walk that morning in an area of the University of Georgia campus with tree-lined trails.
The New York police detained Ibarra, 26, about a year after federal authorities apprehended him at the border, according to ICE.
At the time, he was charged with acting in a manner likely to injure a child under 17 years of age, as well as a driver's license violation.
Ibarra was released before ICE could detain him, according to the agency.
Immigration reforms stuck in Congress
Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, spoke out about Riley's death in an X post calling on Biden to “close the border.”
“The brutal killer who took Laken's life was one of the millions of illegal aliens the Biden Administration simply freed and unleashed on our country,” Johnson wrote.
[A Latino immigrant suspected of the murder of a nursing student in Georgia is arrested]
The White House did not immediately respond Monday night to a request for comment.
Johnson's message came after he criticized a recent bipartisan bill that would have included an emergency measure to allow the Department of Homeland Security to close the border if the number of daily migrants reached a certain number.
Trump fueled the bill's failure when he urged Republicans to vote against it.
His supporters in the Senate ultimately blocked the legislation, arguing that the measure, which would have led to the most aggressive border law in decades, was not enough.
Biden, who criticized Trump's efforts to kill the bill, argued that the former president, his likely opponent in November, "would rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it."
Trump asserted on social media that the bill was a “trap for Republicans to take the blame” for the border “just in time” for the elections.
Biden and Trump's visit to the border
Biden and Trump plan to visit the border between the United States and Mexico this Thursday.
Biden “will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate's bipartisan deal on border security, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades,” according to the White House.
A sizable majority of Americans consider immigration an important election issue.
84% of respondents in a national poll conducted this month by Monmouth University said illegal immigration is a serious problem.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has called on Democrats to go on the offensive on border issues, arguing that Democratic House candidate Tom Suozzi's victory in the special congressional election in New York could “serve as a route for Democrats” in November.
“Suozzi launched an aggressive message on the issue, with ads highlighting his support for a secure border and legal pathways to citizenship,” Murphy wrote in a Feb. 14 memo to Democrats.
“She flipped the script on her Republican opponent, successfully painting her as unserious about border security because of her opposition to the bipartisan border bill, and turned what could have been a devastating political liability into an advantage,” he said. .