Katie Britt Pins Laken Riley’s Murder on Biden Border Policies in Response to State of the Union

Senator Katie Britt (R., Ala.) zeroed in on the ongoing surge in immigration — now the most important problem Americans say the United States faces — in her response to President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday night, citing the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley to illustrate the failure of Biden’s border policies.

Riley, 22, was beaten to death while on a jog on the University of Georgia campus last month. Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was charged in the grisly murder.

“President Biden inherited the most secure border of all time, but minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations, halted construction of the border wall, and announced a plan to give amnesty to millions,” Britt said in her speech, which she delivered from her kitchen. “We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis — he invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days.”

“From fentanyl poisonings to horrific murders, there are empty chairs tonight at kitchen tables just like this one because of Biden’s senseless border policies,” Britt said. “Just think about Laken Riley: In my neighboring state of Georgia, this beautiful 22-year-old nursing student went out on a jog one morning, but she never got the opportunity to return home. She was brutally murdered by one of the millions of illegal border-crossers President Biden chose to release into our homeland.”

Ibarra, who illegally entered the country in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, was arrested in New York City in September 2023 for acting in a manner to injure a child under 17, but he was released by local police before a detainer could be issued. One month later, he was cited in Georgia for misdemeanor shoplifting alongside his brother, Diego Ibarra, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Biden briefly mentioned Riley’s murder in his State of the Union address after being challenged to “say her name” by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene as he entered the House chamber. The president did not, however, take responsibility during the speech for role that his policies have played in exacerbating the ongoing migrant crisis, instead focusing on House Republicans’ refusal to get behind a border deal negotiated in the Senate.

Britt’s comments come hours after the House of Representatives passed a bill in honor of Riley that would require federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants charged with local theft or burglary and would also allow states to sue the federal government “if an immigration related action harms the state or its citizens.”