Athens Mayor Says Crime and Illegal Immigration ‘Not Connected’ after Killing of UGA Student Laken Riley

The mayor of Athens, Ga., where an illegal immigrant was recently charged with murdering a female nursing student at the University of Georgia, said Wednesday in the context of the tragedy that crime and illegal immigration are “not connected.”

Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022, faced numerous murder and assault charges for killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and leaving her body on the school’s campus in Athens. He was accused of brutally beating her and severely damaging her skull.

“I caution against conflating immigration and crime,” Athens mayor Kelly Girtz said at a press conference following the incident, which has sparked outrage throughout the country. “The data demonstrates that the two are not connected.”

Ibarra allegedly caused “great bodily harm with an object” and prevented Riley from calling 911 when he kidnapped her during a jog on Georgia’s campus. The weapon Ibarra used against Riley is still unknown, although her initial cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.

Immigration and Customers Enforcement said Sunday that Ibarra was apprehended in September 2022 and paroled after illegally entering the country through El Paso, Texas. The New York City Police Department arrested Ibarra in September 2023 for endangering the welfare of a child, his wife’s son, who had no restraint or helmet on as he rode on the back of Ibarra’s moped.

New York City released Ibarra before immigration officials could ask local police to detain him so he could be transferred to ICE and put in deportation proceedings. Some Republican lawmakers have blasted not just New York City and the Biden administration for its dereliction of duty at the border but also the government of Athens-Clarke County.

“Because the impact of federal immigration policy on localities has been under such consistent discussion in recent months, I do want to say a few words about this,” Girtz said Wednesday. “This is my 18th year as a local government policy maker and my work has overlapped with four U.S. presidencies and numerous iterations of Congress. All of them failed to reach an agreement on how to handle immigration.”

Girtz suggested that his government did not hold any responsibility for the crime, However, some attendees at the press briefing vehemently disagreed.

As he addressed the crowed, he was interrupted by shouts of “liar!”, “you’ve got blood on your hands for this murder sir,” and “you need to resign!”

Girtz said Athens is not formally designated as a sanctuary city. However, in 2019, the Athens City Council unanimously passed a resolution “to foster a community where individuals and families of all statuses feel safe,” so that “all people, including those without documentation, feel welcome and comfortable interacting with local law enforcement, their local government, and all services provided by such.”

“Whereas, we unflinchingly defend the human rights of all people, including citizens, noncitizens, and those without documentation, and recognize that we cannot be witness to the violation of constitutional rights given to all people,” the adopted resolution said.