Bill Clinton said that the killing of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered in February allegedly by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, could have been prevented had the killer been “properly vetted.”
The former president was speaking to voters in Georgia on Sunday as part of a campaign swing in southern battleground states on behalf of Kamala Harris. In his remarks to attendees of a fish-fry, Clinton was making a broader point in tying Riley’s murder to the bipartisan border bill that was “killed” by Donald Trump this year. He suggested that such a bill would have provided more funding for border security that could have stopped the young woman’s murderer, who entered the country in 2022.
A clip of Clinton’s remarks, shared without the context about the bill, was seized upon by Trump’s social media operation as evidence that not even a surrogate for the Harris campaign could defend the Biden administration’s border policies.
“(Harris is) the only candidate who has actually endorsed a bill that would hold down immigration in any given year to a certain point,” Clinton said. “Trump killed the bill.”
Former President Bill Clinton has been centered in a new former President Donald Trump ad. Clinton seems to be blaming Vice President Kamala Harris for the border.
WMAZ
As illegal migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged in recent years before ebbing, immigration and border security have remained a top issue for voters.
“Kamala Harris claimed the border was “secure” just days after Laken Riley’s illegal immigrant killer Jose Ibarra crossed into the nation,” Trump’s campaign wrote in a press release Monday.
“President Trump will secure the border and stop catch-and-release. This is why he was just endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.”
Trump and other Republicans have attacked the Biden administration for releasing the suspect in Riley’s murder on parole after he was originally detained.
Riley, a nursing student studying at Augusta University in Georgia, was murdered while on a run in February. The suspect, José Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was granted parole into the U.S. “due to detention capacity at the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas,” the DHS previously confirmed, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee press release from April.
The case has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.
“The man who killed Laken Riley in Georgia was released by the Biden-Harris administration on parole because they had no capacity at the border to hold him,” Senator Linsey Graham (South Carolina-R) said on CNN in September. “That’s not a reason to parole people.”
He continued: “I promise you; women have been raped and murdered. People have been hurt by illegal immigrants released into this country without detention. It is a nightmare. It is crazy.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump has vowed to conduct a mass deportation plan if he is re-elected. Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller promised a “100 percent” deportation rate at the border by bringing back policies including “remain in Mexico” and Title 42 restrictions used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump said at a press conference in Los Angeles that the work would start in Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, reiterating the claims of a Venezuelan gang takeover in Aurora as well as unfounded accusations that Haitian migrants in Springfield have been eating residents’ pets.
On Friday, Trump shared his mass deportation plans while at a rally in Aurora. As part of Operation Aurora, Trump said he would seek the death penalty for any undocumented migrant who killed an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
Supporters of former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump hold images of Laken Riley before he speaks at a “Get Out the Vote” rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024. On March 18, 2024, Riley’s father, Jason, spoke to NBC news about his daughter’s death and said it sparked a political ‘storm.’
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP/Getty Images
“I make this pledge and vow to you, November 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America,” Trump told supporters. “I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered.”
Harris faced questions about immigration during her media blitz last week, including during her interview with 60 Minutes.
When asked if she regretted the Biden administration’s early decision to loosen immigration policies, Harris defended the administration’s approach.
“It’s a long-standing problem, and solutions are at hand, and from Day One, literally, we have been offering solutions,” she said.
