ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was on her morning run at the University of Georgia when authorities said a stranger dragged her into a remote area and killed her, rocked the campus as police searched for a suspect.
The Arrest of a Venezuelan who entered the United States illegally and was allowed to remain there to pursue his immigration case, put the tragedy at the center of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Former President Donald Trump blamed President Joe Biden and his border policies for the fatal beating of the Augusta University student. A conservative news site criticized “open border elites” for accepting the deaths of women like Riley as “collateral damage.”
This is familiar territory for Trump, who launched his bid for the White House in 2016 by saying that Mexicans “bring crime.” They are rapists. And some of them, I assume, are good people.” As president, he has opened an office for families whose members have been victims of violent immigrant crimes quickly broken down under Biden.
The debate over the country's broken immigration system has emerged as a major campaign issue amid an unprecedented migration surge that has strained budgets in cities like New York, Chicago and Denver and divided some Democrats. Trump has ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric, claiming migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country. And he and other Republicans have suggested that migrants are more likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens, even though the evidence doesn't support those claims.
Biden has criticized Republicans for turning against bipartisanship Border security agreement after Trump condemned it. He will visit on Thursday in the Texas border town of Brownsville, while Trump will be in another Texas border town, Eagle Pass.
Trump posted on his social media page: “Crooked Joe Biden's border invasion is destroying our country and killing our citizens!” The horrific murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should NEVER have happened!”
“He’s an animal that came in,” Trump said Tuesday on Michigan radio station WFDF.
Democrats were more reserved, with many expressing sadness over Riley's death and some accusing Trump of exploiting a tragedy and using xenophobic rhetoric for political gain.
The White House expressed its “deepest condolences” to Riley’s family. “People should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law if found guilty,” said spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, predicted that Riley's death “will change this election as much as anything else.”
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” the South Carolina Republican said.
Many studies have found that immigrants are less attracted to violent crime than native-born citizens. One published by the National Academy of Sciences, Based on data from the Texas Department of Public Safety from 2012 to 2018, it was reported that native-born U.S. citizens were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes as people who were in the country illegally.
Another one in the Journal of Criminology analyzed multiple data sources from 1990 to 2014 and concluded that increases in illegal immigration were generally accompanied by decreases in violent crime or had no significant relationship.
A study published last year by… National Bureau of Economic Researcha private group, found that since 1960, immigrants have been incarcerated less often than U.S.-born white men.
“While Democrats are becoming more positive when talking about immigrants and pointing to their contributions to the United States, Republicans remain negative and increasingly focus on issues of crime and legality when talking about immigrants,” said Ran Abramitzky, a Stanford University economics professor who has studied connections between immigration and crime using analyzes of congressional statements going back decades.
Jon Feere, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the Trump administration who is now director of investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies, dismissed the investigation. He referred to migrants who do not have legal status in the United States, saying they are committing crimes simply by being here.
“These types of consequences will last for many years, even beyond this administration,” Feere said. “And they can continue to ignore it, but the American people are paying attention.”
The victims' families have heartbreaking stories.
Don Rosenberg, a retired entertainment and publishing executive, lost his 25-year-old son Drew in 2010 when a Honduran man in the country illegally repeatedly hit him with his car in San Francisco and tried to escape. When he spoke to families whose loved ones were killed by immigrants, he concluded that authorities ignored them and even protected the perpetrators.
“I thought my case was an anomaly. No, my case was the rule,” said Rosenberg, president of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime.
Rosenberg says the high-profile cases won't resonate with voters until news organizations give them more attention, “because Trump only talks to people who support Trump.”
The man accused of killing Riley, Jose Ibarra, was arrested in September 2022 for illegal entry near El Paso, Texas, amid an unprecedented surge in migration, and released to pursue his case in immigration court . Back then the border police released migrants with instructions to appear at an immigration authority, not even with scheduling court dates. This practice, which added years to the time it takes to resolve an immigration case, was largely discontinued in February 2023.
It is unclear whether Ibarra, 26, followed these instructions or applied for asylum. Federal officials said he was arrested by New York police in August on child endangerment charges and released, although New York officials said Sunday they had no record of the arrest.
Iberra was living in Athens, Georgia, when Riley was killed last week. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump first mentioned the killing on Friday, calling it part of what he called a “Biden migrant crime.” It comes after a group of Migrants argue with the police in New York sparked political uproar and renewed debate over policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The influential conservative website Breitbart News linked Riley's death to other women killed by people illegally in the country, including Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed on a crowded San Francisco pier in 2015. “Their deaths were all 100% preventable,” the website said.
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Spagat reported from San Diego and Weissert from Washington. Jill Colvin contributed from Columbia, SC
