House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas over his failure to fully enforce existing border security and immigration laws, and the recent brutal murder of a Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an illegal migrant from Venezuela only confirmed the necessity of that impeachment.
Now top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding that Sec. Mayorkas provide answers and all relevant information about the suspect who is known to have been allowed by federal officials to remain in the U.S. despite entering illegally and committing crimes in other states, the Daily Mail reported.
"Laken Riley was murdered because of Joe Biden's open-border policies," House Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told the outlet. "Accountability should start with the Biden administration undoing the 64 executive actions that effectively opened our borders and created this deadly crisis in the first place."
According to Fox News, Laken Riley, 22, was a nursing student at the University of August-Athens who previously attended the University of Georgia and was out for a jog on the UGA campus on Feb. 22 when she was brutally murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, an illegal migrant from Venezuela.
According to the police report, Ibarra killed Riley using "blunt force trauma" and "maliciously" caused deadly bodily harm "by disfiguring her skull," after which he attempted to conceal his heinous act by "dragging the victim to a secluded area," where she was later found by UGA police after her friend reported her missing when she never returned home from her morning jog.
Ibarra now stands charged with multiple felony offenses that include "malice murder, murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and concealing the death of another," plus a misdemeanor count of "physically hindering a 911 call," and is currently being held without bond in the Athens-Clarke County jail.
Fox News further reported that, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, Ibarra is known to have illegally entered the U.S. near El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 but was processed and released on parole, after which he made his way to New York City.
Per ICE records, Ibarra was arrested in NYC nearly a year later in August 2023, and was "charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation," but was released from custody because of NYC's "sanctuary" policies before ICE could issue a detainer to hold him pending deportation.
Ibarra reportedly fled to Georgia, where he also had outstanding criminal charges from October 2023 for shoplifting and failure to appear for a court date.
Interestingly enough, the suspect's brother, Diego Ibarra, is also believed to have entered the country illegally around the same time, also has outstanding criminal charges in New York and Georgia, and is being held in custody after he was caught in possession of a fraudulent green card.
In the letter to Sec. Mayorkas from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who was joined by Rep. Tom McClintock, chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, the basic facts of what was known of Ibarra's brutal murder of Riley were laid out.
"Criminal aliens exploit vulnerabilities in our nation’s immigration system to the detriment of those in the United States," the chairmen stated. "The Biden Administration’s border and immigration policies only increase the likelihood that criminal aliens will successfully enter and remain in the U.S."
They then set a deadline of March 12 for Mayorkas to respond to their demands for pertinent information about Ibarra, particularly, "Case history information, including, but not limited to, the alien’s immigration history, immigration benefits applications, the alien file (A-file) or consular file (including all consular notes), and immigration detention status and history."
The lawmakers also asked for all "information" about "the time, date, and place of any and all of the alien’s entries into the United States" as well as whether Customs and Border Protection officials "were alerted to derogatory information about the alien and what questions were asked of the alien during the screening process," and whether ICE had ever formally "lodged an immigration detainer against the alien."
