President Joe Biden's campaign said it was “racist” to claim that migrant crime is rising after the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and criticized Donald Trump for “poisoning the blood of the country” with his rhetoric.
Illegal Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested for the murder of the 22-year-old nursing student. Trump called him a “monster.”
The Biden campaign said that despite high-profile cases like Riley's, there is no fear of a “surge in migrant crime.”
“This narrative about immigration crime is racist,” Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California said Wednesday at a news conference organized by Biden’s reelection campaign. 'It is not true. “Donald Trump is out here saying that we are poisoning the blood of this country, and the facts actually don’t bear that out.”
“Immigrants commit fewer crimes overall. So when that narrative comes out, it’s just an untrue narrative,” he added.
Laken Riley was killed while jogging in Georgia, an illegal immigrant was arrested on suspicion of murder
A recent Pew poll found that 57% of Americans say the large number of migrants seeking to enter the country is leading to more crime.
Charis Kubrin, co-author of “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock,” told CNN that the statistics simply don't support whether more immigration is linked to higher crime rates.
“The most common finding across all of these different types of studies is that immigration into an area is either not associated with crime in that area or that there is a negative association with crime in that area,” he said.
“That is, more immigration means less crime.” “It is rare to find studies that show that crime occurs as a result of an increase in immigration or among a larger proportion of the population who are immigrants.”
The Biden campaign defended migrants ahead of Biden's second trip to the border on Thursday.
Biden will travel to Brownsville, Texas, on the same day that Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas. The cities are about 300 miles apart and the two men are not expected to interact.
Both Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right) will be at the Texas border on Thursday: Biden in Brownsville, Texas, and Trump in Eagle Pass, Texas
During his stay, Biden “will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, frontline personnel and local leaders to discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate's bipartisan border security agreement,” a White House official said.
The President will be joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Representative Vincente Gonzalez, local elected officials, and personnel from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). ).
Biden will be briefed on border security operations and will then publicly point out that Republicans in the House of Representatives must pass a bipartisan border package that has already been approved by the Senate. Conservatives argue that the legislation is not strong enough to combat illegal immigration.
The bill included more than $20 billion for border security, which would add new Customs and Border Protection agents, more asylum officers to extend processing times and more immigration judges.
Democrats accuse the GOP of electoral politics. Trump, Biden's likely rival in the 2024 presidential election, has spoken out against the law.
While in Eagle Pass, the former president will blast Biden over the record number of illegal border crossings and the murder of Riley, the latest high-profile migrant case.
Riley, a nursing student, was found dead by police last Thursday after she failed to return from her morning jog. University of Georgia police found her near where she was jogging through campus with “visible injuries.”
“Crooked Joe Biden’s border invasion is destroying our country and killing our citizens!” The horrific murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should NEVER have happened! “The monster who took his own life entered our country illegally in 2022… and then was released AGAIN by radical Democrats in New York after hurting a CHILD!!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“If I am your President, we will immediately seal the border, stop the invasion, and begin on day one the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history!” May God Bless Laken Riley and her family!!! Our prayers are with you!'
Jose Ibarra, 26, was arrested on charges including murder and kidnapping in the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Hope Riley in Athens, Georgia
Riley was killed by “blunt force trauma,” police confirmed.
The White House expressed condolences for her family but said Biden had not contacted them.
“I would like to express our deepest condolences to Laken Riley’s family and loved ones,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
“As this is an active case, I will be very careful in commenting more specifically on this case,” she added. “I have nothing to do with the president's conversation with the family, but it is heartbreaking.” “I can't imagine what the family is going through.”
Ibarra was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing an emergency call, concealing the death of another and failing to appear for fingerprint arraignment.
The 26-year-old traveled to El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, but was released from a detention center due to a lack of space.
His illegal status prompted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to publicly blame the Biden administration for its immigration policies.
Ibarra was arrested in 2022 after entering the U.S. illegally and was “paroled and released for further processing,” an ICE statement said.
He was also arrested by New York police last September and charged with “injury to a child under 17 and driving violation,” but police released him “before any prison sentence could be imposed,” he said ICE.
Police said he did not know the victim and that the crime was a “random, isolated act.”
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officers searched Ibarra's Athens apartment and there was evidence he acted alone.
“He didn’t know her at all. “I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw a person and bad things happened,” Clark said.
“The evidence is robust. It is supported by important community input, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were supported by video footage from our campus security camera network.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday that if re-elected as president, he would “launch the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history.”
Since Biden took office in 2021, over 7.2 million migrants have entered the United States through the southern border.
That's more people than the population of 36 states. Arizona, for example, had a population of 7.1 million, according to the 2020 census.
Trump has promised the “largest deportation” of illegal immigrants in US history if he becomes president again in 2024.