Georgia lawmakers to crack down on arrested migrants’ immigration status after Laken Riley’s brutal murder
Georgia state legislators have approved a get-tough immigration enforcement bill in the wake of the brutal beating death of nursing student Laken Riley — allegedly by a Venezuelan migrant.
The bill now only needs Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to sign off on the measure, CNN reported.
“While Joe Biden and his liberal allies refuse to protect our citizens and secure our southern border, Georgia Senate Republicans are passing legislation to protect our state from criminal illegal immigrants,” Peach State GOP senators posted on X.
“Let us be clear, sanctuary cities will not be tolerated in Georgia,” the post said.
The state’s move Thursday follows a March 7 vote by the GOP-led US House of Representatives approving the federal Laken Riley Act — which has since stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The federal measure would require immigration enforcement agents to arrest migrants who enter the country illegally and hold them for deportation if they commit crimes.
It would also force asylum seekers to await immigration hearings on the Mexican side of the US southern border, rather than inside the country where thousands have flocked to “asylum cities” like New York.
The Georgia bill, which is expected to have Kemp’s backing, requires state and local law enforcement to verify the immigration status of migrants over 18 who are arrested, are being held behind bars, or if there is “probable cause to believe” that they have committed a crime.
Both pieces of legislation come in the wake of Riley’s brutal slaying on the University of Georgia campus.
The 22-year-old nursing student was out for a run on Feb. 22 when police said she was attacked and viciously beaten, with her body left along a trail in a wooded portion of the campus.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, who immigration officials said entered the country illegally, was later arrested in the gruesome attack and is facing murder charges in the case.
Ibarra entered the country in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said, and later lived in New York City briefly before moving in with his brother in Georgia.
Riley studied at the University of Georgia until transferring to nearby Augusta University.
The state bill was introduced following the high-profile case.
After passing the state Senate by a 34-19 vote earlier this month, the state house on Thursday moved the measure along with a 99-75 vote, sending it to the governor’s desk.
One state Senate Democrat who voted against the measure called it “a xenophobic bill.”
“This bill will result in the racial profiling of our immigrant communities & does not make Georgians safer,” Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes wrote on X. “I will always fight to protect our immigrant communities.”
.
