Georgia Republicans seek new laws to crack down on immigrants after nursing student killed

FILE – This undated image provided by Augusta University shows Laken Hope Riley, a nursing student whose body was found Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga., after not returning from a run. (Augusta University via AP, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia House Republicans are pushing to require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants, arrest them and detain them for deportation.

Georgia Legislature

The proposal advanced through the state House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, going to the full House for more debate, after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus.

Jose Ibarra was arrested Friday on murder and assault charges in the Thursday death of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Ibarra, 26, is a Venezuelan citizen who immigration authorities say unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022. It’s unclear whether he has applied for asylum.

Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus, after starting her college career at the much larger Athens campus of the University of Georgia. She was found dead Thursday after a roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area of the University of Georgia campus near its intramural fields.

State Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, speaks on HB 1105, which would penalize sheriffs who don’t coordinate with federal immigration authorities, at a House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting at the Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Also Tuesday, the University of Georgia said it would spend $7.3 million to bolster campus security, and Republicans in the U.S. House demanded information about Ibarra from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The committee approved a quickly rewritten version of an earlier bill that would also set out new requirements for how sheriffs and jail officials should check with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether people are known to be in the country illegally. It sets out possibly contradictory rules about whether such people can be detained for more than 48 hours without a warrant.

This photo, provided by the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office, shows Jose Ibarra, 26, on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. Ibarra was arrested on charges that included murder and kidnapping in the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Hope Riley in Athens, Ga. (Clarke County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

“This issue right now is my community’s most important issue, certainly, as faced unspeakable tragedy in Athens over the last several days,” said Republican state Rep. Houston Gaines of Athens.

University of Georgia students gather to pay tribute to Laken Riley at the Tate Plaza on campus in Athens, Ga., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus, was found dead Thursday, Feb. 22, after a roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area of the UGA campus near its intramural fields. Students also gathered to pay tribute to a UGA student who committed suicide last week. (Nell Carroll/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center, in a July document, counted six of 159 Georgia counties with 287(g) agreements with ICE. Five of those are only in jails, while Oconee County, an Athens suburb, serves warrants for immigration violations and deportation orders.

At least three Georgia counties dropped jail-based cooperation with ICE, according to the center, including two big suburban Atlanta counties where it was major campaign issue — Gwinnett County and Cobb County.

Isabel Otero, policy director in Georgia for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the backers of the bill are “dead set on forcing localities to do immigration enforcement,” even if local police and sheriff’s departments don’t have the capacity.

“Unfortunately, folks have capitalized on the death of a young woman for political points in a way that’s really disheartening,” Otero said.

Republican state Rep Jesse Petrea of Savannah said the bill is needed to enforce existing state law requiring sheriffs to check with ICE on the immigration status of people who don’t appear to be American citizens.

“Maybe half of our sheriff’s are following that law,” Petrea said. “That is unfortunate, and that’s what we’re trying to address here.”

Sheriffs dispute their jails are disregarding the law, said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association. He said even Athens-Clarke County, which Petrea and others have identified as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction for undocumented immigrants, is following the law.

Students gather at the Tate Plaza on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, to pay tribute to Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus who was found dead Thursday, Feb. 22, after a roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area of the UGA campus near its intramural fields. UGA students also gathered to pay tribute to a student who committed suicide last week. (Nell Carroll/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Petrea’s bill would state the sheriffs that don’t check immigration status are guilty of violating their oath of office, a crime in Georgia. The bill would also seek to deny state funding to jails and sheriffs that don’t cooperate.

People gather at the Tate Plaza on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, to pay tribute to Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus who was found dead Thursday, Feb. 22, after a roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area of the UGA campus near its intramural fields. Panhellenic President Dabney Duncan hugs Alpha Chi Omega President Chloe Mullis after she spoke about what Riley meant to the sorority. People also gathered to pay tribute to a UGA student who committed suicide last week. (Nell Carroll/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The legislation states inmates couldn’t be held for longer than 48 hours on an immigration detainer without a warrant signed by a federal judge, but it later states sheriffs and jailers must comply with all ICE detainer requests.

The University of Georgia said it would boost its police budget by 20% to add more officers and increase pay. The university said the additional safety personnel would patrol in areas where students gather at night, including 24-hour security coverage in all libraries. It also said a subsidized ride-hailing system will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. instead of just four hours nightly.

Augusta University students, in blue, and University of Georgia students gather at the Tate Plaza on the UGA campus in Athens, Ga., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, to pay tribute to Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus who was found dead Thursday, Feb. 22, after a roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area of the UGA campus near its intramural fields. UGA students also gathered to pay tribute to a student who committed suicide last week. (Nell Carroll/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The university said it would install a system of combined security cameras and blue-light emergency call boxes in campus locations, after it had removed emergency call boxes, saying they were little used by cellphone-toting students. It also said it would install more lights at crosswalks, set up license-plate readers, and build more fences.

The university says the total package will cost $7.3 million, including $5.5 million in one-time capital investments and $1.8 million in ongoing expenses.

In Washington, Republican chairs of multiple House committees sent separate letters to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas demanding information on how ICE handled Ibarra’s case.

Newly filed arrest affidavits say Ibarra used an object as a weapon in the crime and is accused of “disfiguring” Riley’s skull. They also say Ibarra dragged the 22-year-old to a secluded area Thursday, according to one of the affidavits obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Georgia Legislature

Authorities have not said exactly how Riley was killed, only that her death was caused by blunt force trauma.

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, who oversees prosecutions in Athens-Clarke County, said Monday that she is bringing in a special prosecutor to handle the charges against Ibarra. Gonzalez, up for reelection this year, has been under fire as an ineffective prosecutor, losing several cases and seeing a number of assistant district attorneys depart her office.

Gonzalez said she will appoint Sheila Ross, who now works for the Prosecuting Attorneys Council, a state agency, to oversee the case.

Gaines is also pushing a second bill, House Bill 1359, which would let people seek to have their property taxes refunded if cities or counties refused to communicate with immigration authorities or if sheriffs refuse to check a suspected immigrant’s legal status.

The refunds would also apply if a local government refused to enforce vagrancy laws against homeless people.