Two Republican lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding information on the illegal immigrant suspected of killing a 22-year-old university student in Georgia.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the panel chairman, and Tom McClintock of California sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting information on Jose Antonio Ibarra after they learned that this was not his first arrest in the United States.
Mr. Ibarra, 26, is charged with a slew of felonies and one misdemeanor in the killing last week of Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University. Her body was found in the woods along a trail by the University of Georgia. Police have not revealed how Riley was killed, but that her death was caused by blunt force trauma.
Mr. Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally from Venezuela in 2022 and in 2023 he was arrested in New York City and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.
“The Biden Administration’s border and immigration policies only increase the likelihood that criminal aliens will successfully enter and remain in the U.S. Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to conduct oversight of federal immigration policy and procedures,” the letter to the DHS said.
The lawmakers are requesting information on Mr. Ibarra’s immigration case history; the time, date and place of all of his entries into the country; information about his processing by Customs and Border Protection officers; and whether any detainers were lodged against him.
The lawmakers gave DHS a deadline of 5 p.m. on March 12.
Republicans have been quick to blame the Biden administration in the death of Riley, citing the lack of border security measures.
Rep. Katie Porter, California Democrat, said Monday that this incident shouldn’t shape immigration policy.
“The important thing to focus on is any one instance shouldn’t shape our overall immigration policy, which has so many different facets, including economic choices about what workers to allow and how to create prosperity in America,” Ms. Porter, who’s running for the Senate in California, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”