Following the death of Laken Riley, the Augusta University College of Nursing student who was found dead in a wooded area near the University of Georgia in Athens Thursday, comments from Vice President Kamala Harris discussing border security have resurfaced.
Riley, a 22-year-old at the time of her death, was first reported missing after going on a morning run. Later that day, police found her dead. On Friday, UGA police chief Jeffrey Clark announced Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, as the suspect in her murder. He is charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another in connection with Riley’s death, according to a Newsweek report.
He further revealed that the suspect, a native of Venezuela, is not a U.S. citizen and had no prior history of violence. The victim’s death has been considered an “isolated incident” and a “crime of opportunity, [with] no motive.” Ibarra and his wife crossed the U.S. border in 2022, police say, adding that three or four other people have been taken into custody, but only Ibarra has been charged.
Following news of Riley’s death, comments of Harris resurfaced, stating that the border dividing the U.S. and Mexico is secure.
“I think that there is no question that we have to do what the president and I asked Congress to do, the first request we made: pass a bill to create a pathway to citizenship,” Harris told Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press on September 11, 2022 – allegedly three days after Ibarra crossed the border. “The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.”
Following the viral return of her comments, conservatives flooded social media to condemn her remarks.
“Three days after Georgia student Laken Riley’s killer illegally crossed the border, Kamala Harris went on national TV and said ‘the border is secure,'” Trump supporter Alex Bruesewitz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Disgraceful!!!!”
“Laken Riley’s illegal immigrant killer crossed the southern border on September 8, 2022,” Make America Great Again Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee wrote, “Three days later, Kamala Harris told NBC: ‘We have a secure border.'”
Illegal immigrants entering the U.S. has long been a hot topic among right-wing lawmakers, who have called for more stringent policies on migrants entering the U.S. through the southern border.
According to the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice, “relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.”
