Republicans invoke Georgia student's death in push for hardline immigration policies

Republicans at the state and national level 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 crossing 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 since blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for her death.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday cited Ibarra and Riley in a Truth Social post in which he said he would “immediately seal the border” if he returns to office.

“The monster who took her life illegally entered our Country in 2022…and then was released AGAIN by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!” Trump said. “When 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!”

Ibarra, who lived in Athens, Georgia, had been arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 8, 2022, after crossing into the U.S. He was paroled and released for further processing, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Laken Riley, left, with Bianca Tiller, her former roommate during freshman year at University of Georgia. (Courtesy Bianca Tiller)

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also used Riley’s death to criticize the Biden administration.

“It’s outrageous we still have no idea who is entering this country illegally and where they’re being released,” Kemp said Sunday in a post on X. “Americans have a right to this information, and I’m demanding the Biden administration provide it so we don’t lose even more innocent lives like Laken Riley’s.”

Riley’s body was found Thursday after a friend reported her missing when she didn’t return from a jog that morning in an area on the University of Georgia campus with wooded trails.

Ibarra, 26, was arrested by the New York Police Department 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.

Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson drew attention to Laken’s death in a post to X that called on Biden to “close the border.”

“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,” the Louisiana Republican said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

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

Trump was the driving force behind torpedoing that bill when he urged Republicans to vote against it. Senate Republicans ultimately blocked the legislation, arguing that the measure, which would have led to the most aggressive border law in decades, did not go far enough.

Biden, who criticized Trump’s efforts to kill the bill, has argued that his likely opponent in November would “rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.” Trump has asserted on social media that the border bill was a “trap for Republicans to assume the blame” for the border “just in time” for the election.

Biden and Trump are both scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, where the president 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.

The visits come as a sizable majority of Americans weigh immigration as a major issue in elections. Eighty-four percent of respondents in a national Monmouth University poll this month said that illegal immigration is a serious problem.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has called on Democrats to go on the offensive with border issues, arguing that the victory by House Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi in a New York special election this month could “serve as a roadmap for Democrats” in November.

“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 Feb. 14 memo to Democrats. “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.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com