(RepublicanReport.org) – In February, Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley was murdered after she went out for a jog on campus in Georgia. According to the coroner’s report obtained by People, her death was from a blunt force trauma to the head. Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested and charged with her murder and other offenses. During the recent State of the Union address at the Capitol, President Joe Biden said the victim’s name.
On March 7, before the president gave his speech, he was confronted by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who broke decorum by dressing up in campaign gear. According to the Associated Press, the controversial lawmaker placed a button in Biden’s hand demanding he say Riley’s name. Greene then interrupted the president’s address, demanding Biden say her name — he did. The only issue was that he mispronounced her first name as “Lanken,” angering some in the GOP. After sending condolences to her family, Biden called on Congress to pass the bipartisan border deal recently quashed at the behest of former President Donald Trump.
The young woman’s death has become a talking point for Republicans about the dangers at the Southern Border. Ibarra is a Venezuelan who reportedly crossed illegally into the United States. While he has been charged with multiple crimes related to Riley’s killing, including felony murder, aggravated battery, and kidnapping, the suspect has not been convicted of the offenses in a court of law.
Two days after the president’s speech, the House took a roll call vote to pass the Laken Riley Act, which would require the federal government to detain any migrant charged with burglary or theft — an offense Ibarra allegedly committed prior to Riley’s death. The act would also allow states to sue the federal government if they feel it is not fully enforcing immigration laws. While the measure passed mostly with Republican support, 37 Democrats in the House voted for it as well. The bill now sits in the Senate.
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