Biden criticized for lax border policy after Laken Riley murder

President Joe Biden is being widely criticized after the White House belatedly broke its silence and addressed the murder of Laken Riley, allegedly by an illegal immigrant.

“We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Laken Hope Riley,” said a White House statement given to Fox News. “People should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law if they are found to be guilty. Given this is an active case, we would have to refer you to state law enforcement and ICE.”

But if Biden and the Democrats had held Riley’s killer to account by enforcing immigration laws, critics maintain, Riley would be alive today. 

The 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Georgia was killed during a morning jog in a wooded area on campus.

Her alleged killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, was reportedly arrested in 2022 for illegally crossing the border near El Paso, Texas. But as in almost all cases under the Biden administration, Ibarra was immediately released, on his own recognizance, according to CBS News.

Ibarra was again arrested in 2023 by the New York Police Department for endangering a child, but was released again under the so-called sanctuary city policies of New York City. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said that under Biden’s immigration policies, every state has turned into “a border state.”

“Laken Riley’s tragic death struck the hearts of Georgians everywhere and has sparked national outrage,” the governor wrote on X.  “Joe Biden’s failed policies have turned every state into a border state, and I’m demanding information from him so we can protect our people when the federal government won’t!”

Kemp’s tweet also shared a lengthy letter to Biden from Kemp, in which the governor chastises the president for Riley’s death and for not sharing information with state governments about the illegal immigration wave.

The letter was copied to each member of Georgia’s Congressional delegation.

While the White House statement said criminals “should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” House GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise said if Biden simply did his job, Riley’s tragic death wouldn’t have happened.

“Laken Riley should be alive today,” Scalise wrote on X. “But she was murdered by an illegal immigrant Biden let cross our border in El Paso, TX and then released into the country and allowed to stay.”

Scalise asked people to tell Biden “to close the border NOW,” before he added, “Pray for Laken’s family.”

Presumptive Republican nominee for president, former President Donald Trump, pilloried Biden and the Democrats for Riley’s death, in what promises to be a foreshadowing of a brutal presidential campaign rematch.  

Trump said that if he is reelected, he “will immediately seal the border” and “begin the largest deportation” operation in American history.  

“The horrible murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should have NEVER happened,” said Trump, according to NTD. “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.” 

Police are calling the murder “a crime of opportunity” critics accuse the mainstream media of downplaying the damage illegal immigration is doing to states and cities nationally. 

Ibarra illegally entered the country under a “credible fear claim” that if he were returned to his home country, he’d be politically oppressed. 

The “credible fear claim” is often a fraudulent claim that nevertheless allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to release illegal immigrants under a promise to show up for immigration proceedings.  

Ibarra skipped the legal proceedings. 

Now Ibarra is potentially facing felony murder charges, which, under Georgia law, is a capital crime subject to the death penalty.  

Ibarra could also receive the punishment he many feel he should have received to begin with: deportation.