{"id":24231,"date":"2024-02-27T02:26:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24231"},"modified":"2024-02-27T02:26:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:26:31","slug":"republicans-invoke-georgia-students-death-in-push-for-hard-line-immigration-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24231","title":{"rendered":"Republicans invoke Georgia student’s death in push for hard-line immigration policies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republicans at the state and national levels are pointing to the death of a woman on the University of Georgia campus in their push for tougher immigration tactics after an undocumented immigrant <\/strong>was charged in the killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jose Antonio Ibarra<\/a>, a Venezuelan who was previously arrested by federal authorities after having crossed the border into the U.S., was arrested in connection with the killing of Riley, an Augusta University College of Nursing student, last week. Republicans have blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald Trump on Monday cited Ibarra and Riley o<\/a>n Truth Social<\/a>, saying he would \u201cimmediately seal the border\u201d if he returns to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe monster who took her life illegally entered our Country in 2022\u2026and then was released AGAIN by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!\u201d Trump said. \u201cWhen I am your President, we will immediately Seal the Border, Stop the Invasion, and on Day One, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibarra, who lived in Athens, where the University of Georgia is based, had been arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 8, 2022, after he crossed into the U.S. He was paroled and released for further processing, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, also used Riley\u2019s death to criticize the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s outrageous we still have no idea who is entering this country illegally and where they\u2019re being released,\u201d Kemp said Sunday on X<\/a>. \u201cAmericans have a right to this information, and I\u2019m demanding the Biden administration provide it so we don\u2019t lose even more innocent lives like Laken Riley\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riley\u2019s body was found Thursday after a friend reported her missing when she did not return from a jog that morning in an area on the University of Georgia campus<\/a> with wooded trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York police arrested Ibarra, 26, about a year after federal authorities arrested him at the border, according to ICE. He was charged at the time with acting in a manner to injure a child younger than 17, as well as a motor vehicle license violation. Ibarra was released before ICE could take him into custody, the agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., drew attention to Laken’s death in a post\u2002<\/a>on<\/a>\u2002X<\/a> that called on Biden to “close the border.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The brutal murderer who took the life of Laken was one of the millions of illegal aliens that the Biden Administration simply released and unleashed upon our country,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson’s comments came after he criticized a recent bipartisan bill<\/a> that would have included<\/a> emergency authority to allow the Department of Homeland Security to close the border if migration statistics met certain parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was the driving force behind torpedoing the bill when he urged Republicans to vote against<\/a>\u2002it<\/a>. Senate Republicans ultimately blocked\u2002<\/a>the legislation, arguing that the measure, which would have led<\/a> to the most aggressive border law in decades, did not go far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden, who criticized Trump\u2019s efforts to kill the bill, has argued<\/a> that Trump, his likely opponent in November, would \u201crather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.\u201d Trump has asserted<\/a> on social media that the border bill was a \u201ctrap for Republicans to assume the blame\u201d for the border \u201cjust in time\u201d for the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden and Trump are both\u2002<\/a>scheduled to\u2002<\/a>visit\u2002<\/a>the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday. Biden will “discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades,” the White House said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sizable majority of Americans rate immigration as a major issue in elections. Eighty-four percent of respondents in a national Monmouth University<\/a> poll this month said illegal immigration is a serious problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has called on Democrats<\/a> to go on the offensive with border issues, arguing that the victory by House Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi in a New York special\u2002<\/a>congr<\/a>e<\/a>ssional e<\/a>lection<\/a> this month could “serve as a roadmap for Democrats” in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Suozzi messaged aggressively on the issue, running ads that highlighted his support for a secure border and legal pathways to citizenship,” Murphy wrote in a memo<\/a>\u2002to Democrats<\/a> on Feb. 14. “He flipped the script on his 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans at the state and national levels are pointing to the death of a woman on the University of Georgia campus in their push for tougher immigration tactics after an undocumented immigrant was charged in the killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan who was previously arrested by federal authorities after having crossed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3855,1185,3860,1519,1580,5750],"class_list":["post-24231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-accusations","tag-deaths","tag-immigration-policy","tag-killings","tag-republicans","tag-undocumented-immigrants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24233,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24231\/revisions\/24233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}