(NYT) ATHENS, Ga. — When a 22-year-old nursing student was found dead on a wooded trail at the University of Georgia in what’s believed to be the first homicide on campus in nearly 30 years, it set off waves of grief and fear that shook the university to its core.
But when a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela was charged Friday with kidnapping and killing the student, Laken Riley, it did something else: It transformed Athens and Clarke County, a community of about 130,000 people some 70 miles east of Atlanta, into the latest flashpoint in the political fight over U.S. immigration policy.
In a social media post Monday, former President Donald Trump called the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, a “monster,” and blamed President Joe Biden for an “invasion” that is “killing our citizens.” Earlier in the day, at an event at the university, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia decried “an unwillingness by this White House to secure the southern border.”
A third Republican, Rep. Mike Collins, who represents Athens, wrote on social media: “The blood of Laken Riley is on the hands of Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas and the government of Athens-Clarke County,” referring to the unified city-county government.
Such statements have struck many liberals as demagogic rhetoric piled atop a horrific crime. In an interview Sunday, Kelly Girtz, the Democratic mayor of Athens-Clarke County, said the conversation should be focused on mourning the victim, and blaming an individual rather than a group.
“This murder was a violent, heinous act,” he said, “and it rests squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrator.”
On Monday, state Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican, noted that Ibarra, the suspect in the University of Georgia killing, was issued a criminal citation for shoplifting at a Walmart in Athens in October, according to court records. Records show that a bench warrant was issued, meaning that he likely skipped a court date.
Ibarra was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol for crossing the border illegally in September 2022 and was released quickly with temporary permission to stay in the country, authorities said.
That release, or parole, was a practice that the Biden administration used when officials were overwhelmed with high numbers of crossings. It ended that practice about six months later.
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