The legacy of Laken Riley

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

Protecting Americans from violence.

Nearly one year ago, students at the University of Georgia were shocked to learn that an illegal immigrant on campus killed one of their classmates.

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast now with how one UGA alum received the news.

LINDSAY MAST: University of Georgia graduate Katy Moran was at work when her old campus ministry group chat started blowing up…on February 22nd 2024.

MORAN: They all started posting things like, send prayers to Laken Riley's family, you know, she's in a better place, things like that.

Nursing student Laken Riley had been out running in a park on campus. Police received an emergency 911 call from her phone. It was shortly after 9am. They found her body in the woods a few hours later, with marks of blunt force and strangulation.

MORAN: Me and my friend Walker used to go to that lake, to that park next to the intramural fields and it was not dangerous at all.

Like Riley, Katy Moran is a runner…and when she heard where Riley’s body was found, she was confused.

MORAN: You know, someone drunk driving downtown at three in the morning that makes sense, but a girl getting murdered at 9am for running, doesn't make sense at all.

One day after Riley’s death, police detained Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. He crossed the border in September of 2022 and was released pending an asylum trial. In 2023, he was charged with shoplifting from a Walmart in Athens, Georgia. Ibarra never appeared for his trial and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, but he remained at large. When he was arrested as the prime suspect for the Riley murder in February of last year, his immigration status galvanized the border security debate.

But for UGA alum Katy Moran, and many students like her, the concern is much more personal and immediate.

MORAN: There needs to be more safety, there needs to be more seriousness talked about safety. It's just very important to never travel alone. And I think especially when you're in college, you're on top of the world, you know, you're very vulnerable, but you don't acknowledge that. You never know what people are going to do around you.

Ibarra was found guilty of Laken Riley’s murder and sentenced to life in prison in November.

But for those who felt a connection to her death…one thing remains apparent: safety, like life, can be fragile.

For WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: Last week, U.S. Senator Katie Britt reintroduced a bill called the Laken Riley Act…

BRITT: Lakin would have been 23 on January 10th. There is no greater gift that could be given to her and our country than to continue her legacy by saving lives through this bill.

REICHARD: The legislation would make it easier for federal authorities to detain and deport illegal immigrants charged with committing crimes in the U.S. When it was first introduced last year, the bill stalled for lack of Democratic support.

EICHER: This time around, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and swing state Democrats have come out to support the bill.

Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has that story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: After Laken Riley’s death, political debate heated up about what to do with people who commit crimes after entering the United States illegally.

President-elect Donald Trump included the issue in nearly every campaign speech last year, including this appearance at a rally in Georgia.

TRUMP: The savage monster who murdered Laken was let in and released into our country by the open border policy of Kamala Harris… immediately upon taking the oath of office. I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene passed out buttons with Riley’s name on them at the State of the Union address in March. And President Joe Biden held one up during his speech:

BIDEN: Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That's right. But how many thousands of people being killed by illegals? To her parents, I say my heart goes out to you having lost children myself. I understand.

Alabama Senator Katie Britt started to draft a bill to change the laws that kept Riley’s killer from being detained sooner. While a version of it passed the House, Britt’s bill stalled in the majority-Democrat Senate. I asked Britt about it last week…while riding the tram to Senate office buildings.

KATIE BRITT: We obviously would have loved and asked for a hearing and a mark-up in Senate Judiciary. Democrats would not give that to us. They actually did not mark up one immigration bill in the entire last Congress. You look at last year, we took the Laken Riley Act down to the floor not once but twice to try to get it heard and Democrats blocked it both times.

Now…Republicans are in the majority and Democrats are coming to the negotiating table. Democratic senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Ruben Gallego of Arizona co-sponsored the bill, urging their side of the aisle to pass it quickly. Here’s Fetterman on FOX News last week.

FETTERMAN: If you’re here illegally, and you’re committing crimes and those things, I don’t know why anyone thinks it’s controversial that they all need to go.

Thirty-two Democrats voted with Republicans to open up debate on the bill, but they want amendments on some of the finer points. For example, current law allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain an undocumented person only after they have been convicted of a felony.

The Laken Riley Act would include illegal immigrants who have merely been charged with crimes as minor as theft, including shoplifting.

On the Senate floor yesterday, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said the net was too wide.

DURBIN: This bill, as currently written, would eliminate ICE’s discretion to prioritize detention and deportation for dangerous individuals. Instead, it requires—requires—ICE to treat a child arrested for shoplifting candy the same as an adult convicted of child abuse. Why?

Another portion of the bill allows states to sue federal agencies for failing to uphold border law. They would also have the authority to overturn an immigration judge’s decision to release a detainee.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, voted to bring the bill to the Senate floor …but told me he needed more details before voting on the act itself.

KAINE: It never went through a committee so no one has an idea about what it costs, and I think that's important information.

Senator Britt’s office told me they are “prepared to give ICE the resources it needs to properly enforce federal law and protect American families.” Unquote. That means ICE would get more funding, but it is not yet clear where those funds would come from.

Here is Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

THUNE: This is not—I emphasize not—a comprehensive immigration bill. It is an attempt to right one wrong: the fact that individuals already here illegally who have been charged with various property crimes are not required to be detained by immigration and customs enforcement. It is an attempt to ensure that no other family will have to suffer the pain suffered by Laken Riley's.

Debate on the bill and possible amendments continues today.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington D.C.

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