In his deal with to a joint congress on Tuesday, President Trump named Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing pupil who was killed in February 2024, whereas talking about unauthorized immigrants.
“One of the best in her class, admired by everyone, went out for a jog on the campus of the College of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, overwhelmed, brutalized and horrifically murdered,” Trump mentioned.
Riley was a pupil at Augusta College School of Nursing when she went out for a run on Feb. 22, 2024. Prosecutors mentioned she was encountered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, who killed her throughout a wrestle. Ibarra waived his proper to a jury trial and was discovered responsible in November of homicide and different crimes by a choose, who alone heard and determined the case. He was sentenced to life with out parole.
“Laken was stolen from us by a savage unlawful alien,” Trump mentioned.
Trump and different Republicans blamed former President Joe Biden for her dying as a result of Ibarra had been arrested for unlawful entry in September 2022 close to El Paso, Texas, amid an unprecedented surge in migration and launched to pursue his case in immigration court docket.
Trump’s first piece of laws when he took workplace was the Laken Riley Act, a invoice that requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. The invoice received bipartisan help in each the Home and Senate.
Beneath the regulation, federal officers are required to detain any migrant arrested or charged with crimes like shoplifting or assaulting a police officer or crimes that injure or kill somebody.
“In the event you come into this nation illegally and also you commit a criminal offense, you shouldn’t be free to roam the streets of this nation,” mentioned Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who helped push the invoice by the Senate.
The invoice additionally empowers state attorneys basic to sue the federal authorities for hurt attributable to failures or choices in immigration enforcement that hurt states or folks. That features releasing migrants from custody or failing to detain migrants who’ve obtained deportation orders.
The availability offers states some energy in setting immigration coverage once they have been making an attempt to push again in opposition to presidential choices below each the Trump and Biden administrations.
Whereas Republicans management each chambers of Congress, 46 Democrats within the Home and 12 Democrats within the Senate supported the measure.
