Laken Riley and the politics of immigration and crime
The February killing of Laken Riley has been a national lightning rod on immigration and crime since the arrest of Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.
Ibarra entered the US near El Paso and was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 8, 2022, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was paroled and released for further processing, ICE said.
New York City police arrested Ibarra in September 2023 and charged him “with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation,” according to ICE. The NYPD released him “before a detainer could be issued,” the agency said. The NYPD has said it does not have an arrest for Ibarra on record.
Several state and national Republican leaders highlighted Ibarra’s immigration status to support their calls for tighter border security – though there is little evidence indicating a connection between immigration and crime.
During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech in March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, interrupted the president and called for him to acknowledge Riley’s death. Biden responded by holding up a button that read, “Say Her Name LAKEN RILEY,” and offered his condolences.
“Lincoln (sic) Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right, but how many thousands of people are killed by legals?” Biden said. “To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself, I understand.”
He later told MSNBC he should have used the term “undocumented” rather than “illegal.”
Spurred by the killing, Georgia officials signed into law immigration enforcement legislation. The law requires local and state law enforcement officials to verify the immigration status of those over the age of 18 who have been arrested, those in detention or those who an “officer has probable cause to believe” have committed a crime.
Donald Trump repeatedly highlighted Riley’s story while campaigning for president this year in his criticisms of the border policies of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Last month, former President Bill Clinton said Riley’s death “probably wouldn’t have happened” if migrants had “all been properly vetted.”
“You got a case in Georgia not very long ago – didn’t you, they made an ad about it – a young woman who had been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they’d all been properly vetted that probably wouldn’t have happened,” Clinton said. “But if they are all properly vetted, and that doesn’t happen, America is not having enough babies to keep our population up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work.”
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