Donald Trump said that he will “immediately seal the border” if he becomes President again after a nursing student was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant.
Laken Riley, 22, was found dead on the University of Georgia campus after her roommate reported her missing when she failed to return from a jog.
Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, who entered the US illegally in 2022, was charged with malice murder on Friday.
He was also charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another, the University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey L Clark said.
Donald Trump said that he will 'immediately seal the border' if he becomes President after the murder of Laken Riley
Getty/Facebook/Clarke County Sherriff's Office
Trump responded by blaming Biden for Riley’s death: “Crooked Joe Biden's Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens! The horrible murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should have NEVER happened!
“The monster who took her life illegally entered our Country in 2022…and then was released AGAIN by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!,” he ranted on his Truth Social account.
"When I am your President, we will immediately Seal the Border, Stop the Invasion, and on Day One, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History!"
Riley’s body was found in a wooded area near Lake Herrick with blunt-force trauma wounds.
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Laken Riley was found dead on the University of Georgia campus after going for a jog
Ibarra, who resides near Athens, Georgia, is being held at the Athens-Clarke County Jail.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson has said Ibarra was also arrested last August in New York for “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle licence violation”.
His brother, Diego, was charged last week with owing a fraudulent green card. He is being held in state custody.
He has previously been charged with drunk driving and driving without a licence. Later, he was arrested for shoplifting but skipped court.
Trump said he will 'begin the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American History'
ReutersMore than one million migrants have entered the US since Joe Biden became President nearly four years ago.
The US migrant crisis has become a key battleground ahead of the 2024 presidential election in which Joe Biden is expected to face off against Donald Trump in what could be a rematch of the 2020 contest.
In the 2023 fiscal year, the US Border Patrol recorded 2,063,692 encounters with undocumented immigrants.
The number fell from the record high reached in 2022.