Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who attended Augusta University, went for a jog on the University of Georgia campus on February 22nd. Her roommates didn’t hear back from her and got worried, so they called the police. Search parties went out looking for her, and her body was found in Oconee Forest Park near Lake Herrick in Athens, Georgia. Riley previously attended UGA undergrad and was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority before transferring to the AU nursing program nearby.
While Laken was on her jog, her roommates called the police after they noticed she was gone for a suspiciously long period of time. Before Laken left, she gave her roommates her location and told them if she was not back by a specific time to call the police. Her roommates, worried when she did not return, called the police at around 12:07 pm, and that’s when the search began. Police found and arrested the suspect, 26-year-old José Antonio Ibarra, a migrant from Venezuela who came to the U.S. illegally in 2022, in connection with her death. He was charged with abduction and felony murder. According to the chief of UGA police, he lived in an apartment complex about 1 mile from where Riley’s body was found.
Police described this murder as a “crime of opportunity.” Laken’s death has caused many Americans to debate border security and are blaming this homicide on illegal immigration policies. Joe Biden said in the State of the Union address that a nursing student was “killed by an illegal,” which caused outrage because he did not mention Riley’s name and also referred to Ibarra as illegal instead of undocumented. Later, Joe Biden showed remorse for using the word ‘illegal’ to describe the suspect after facing backlash from the democratic party as well as members of the republican party, and said, “I shouldn’t have used illegal; it’s undocumented.”
Jason Riley, Laken’s father, is angry that her death is becoming politicized. Riley said, “We were looking forward to seeing her graduate next year. She was so full of life,” he said. “I just hate that, you know, she was taken so early.” This incident caused the House of Representatives to pass an immigration bill on March 7th named after Riley called the Laken Riley Act, requiring federal detention of migrants who commit burglary or theft and would allow states to file suit against the federal government for failing to enforce immigration laws. Previously, Ibarra had been arrested in NY but was released. Currently, there is no set date for trial.
