The murder of a Georgia nursing student is putting new focus on the historic number of illegal migrants in the interior of the United States. The man who allegedly killed the student is a migrant from Venezuela who was arrested by the Border Patrol last year and immediately released into the United States. 

The student, Laken Riley, had been studying to be a nurse at Augusta University’s Athens campus when she was killed on Thursday while running through the nearby University of Georgia intramural fields. Authorities allege that her killer was Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant who is not an American citizen. 

The chief of the Athens police department, Jeffrey Clark, did not disclose the alleged killer’s immigration status during a post-arrest press conference. In a statement Sunday to Fox News, however, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that Mr. Ibarra was arrested in September 2022 by Border Patrol agents after crossing the border illegally near El Paso, Texas. The agency said he immediately was paroled and released.

However, an investigation by WSBTV Atlanta determined that Mr. Ibarra and his brother both have criminal histories here in America. In August 2023, Mr. Ibarra was charged with reckless endangerment of a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child after he was arrested in New York driving an unregistered, uninsured car with a five-year-old inside. Court records reviewed by the outlet show that Mr. Ibarra promptly moved to Georgia to be with his brother after he was released from a New York jail on bond.

The brother, Diego Ibarra, crossed the southern border into Texas in 2023, where he claimed asylum and was allowed to move to Georgia. Since that move, he has been charged for drunk driving, shoplifting, and failing to appear for fingerprinting. 

When authorities searched for Riley’s killer after her body was discovered, Diego Ibarra presented police with a fake green card, leading to another charge. He and his brother are now being held in custody at an Athens jail without bond. 

Mr. Ibarra now faces charges of malicious murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. 

Authorities also determined that Mr. Ibarra had no relationship with Riley when he killed her. “This was a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual, and bad things happened,” Mr. Clark told reporters. 

The brutal and seemingly random murder of Riley has cast a new spotlight on the immigration crisis, as migrants are moved into communities without a serious vetting process or an efficient deportation system should they commit crimes or be found to not be eligible for asylum.

Venezuela will no longer accept their own nationals being deported from America to their country. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that Venezuela stopped accepting these deportation flights in January after the Biden administration reimposed some sanctions that had previously bee lifted.

At the end of 2023, a record number of migrants had failed to appear for their immigration court dates to adjudicate their asylum claims — leading to record high numbers of migrants facing deportation notices.

The number of in absentia removals increased by more than 150 percent compared to 2022. In total, more than 159,000 in absentia removal orders were issued in 2023, while fewer than 63,000 were handed down in 2022. The previous high of just over 91,000 was reached in 2019. 

Speaker Johnson said on Saturday that President Biden must use his “existing statutory authority and CLOSE THE BORDER,” especially in the wake of Riley’s killing. 

“Every parent, and every American, is saddened — and outraged — to hear about the loss of University of Georgia student Laken Riley.  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. For Laken, and the countless many others lost to this border catastrophe, House Republicans will continue to fight tooth and nail for a return to law and order.”