Backlash is growing against the Biden administration’s border policies after a Venezuelan asylum-seeker was charged with murdering a 22-year old Georgia college student, Laken Riley.

Congress will consider H.R. 7511, “The Laken Riley Act,” which aims to require Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants who have been charged with theft — after the migrant charged with murdering Riley, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra, had been arrested for shoplifting and then released several months before the murder. 

The bill says that it “honors the life and memory of Laken Riley and other victims of the Biden administration’s open borders policies,” places blame on the Biden administration for releasing Mr. Ibarra into the country, and says he should have been detained after he had been charged with crimes previously in New York and Georgia. 

The legislation calls on President Biden to “publicly denounce his administration’s immigration policies that resulted in the murder of Laken Riley” and demands several stricter border security measures. 

Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus and was killed on February 22 in what police said was a “crime of opportunity” while in a wooded area at the University of Georgia’s campus. Her death sparked national outrage and reinflamed debate about immigration and border security. Mr. Ibarra, as the Sun reported following his arrest, is being charged with malicious murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. 

The bill’s sponsor, Congressman Mike Collins, wrote on X on Monday that Riley’s murder was a “wakeup call.” 

“While we can’t bring her back, we must now turn our focus to ensuring this doesn’t happen to any other American,” he said. 

In addition to expanding the crimes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must detain illegal immigrants for, he adds, the bill “will give states legal recourse” when the federal government fails to enforce border restrictions. Under the bill, states will be allowed to sue Homeland Security for border policy blunders that harm the state or citizens of a state. 

Legislation is being pushed on a state level as well, in the two states where Mr. Ibarra had previously been arrested for crimes and released. 

In Georgia, the House voted 97-74 last week to approve a bill that would require police to require local law enforcement to work with federal authorities to help identify, arrest, and detain illegal immigrants for deportation, the Associated Press reported.

New York state Republicans announced last week that they would rename a bill that would allow law enforcement cooperation with ICE to “Laken’s Law.” 

The bill would require local law enforcement and courts to notify ICE when an arrested person is not a citizen. “Laken Riley was tragically murdered because New York’s sanctuary policy means that migrants here illegally and who commit a crime have greater protection than law-abiding citizens,” the New York Senate Republican Deputy Leader, Andrew Lanza said, adding that Riley would still be alive if not for Mr. Biden and Governor Hochul’s immigration policies.