By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and initiate a mass deportation program, a trial centered on an illegal immigrant is underscoring the severity of the illegal immigration crisis. On Wednesday, Georgia Superior Court judge H. Patrick Haggard found the illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra guilty of the malicious murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley. Ibarra, who is also a member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, was found guilty on all 10 charges leveled against him, including one count of malice murder and three counts of felony murder.
Ibarra was arrested earlier this year after murdering Riley while she went for a jog on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. It was revealed during his trial that Ibarra had initially intended to rape the 22-year-old, but when she fought back (for an estimated 20 minutes, prosecutors disclosed) he bashed her head in with a rock. The illegal immigrant has been sentenced to life in prison, since Athens-Clarke County District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez has refused to seek the death penalty in prosecuting illegal immigrants.
Following the verdict being read but prior to sentencing, Riley’s stepfather read to the court one of her final diary entries, a letter to her future husband, dated just two months before her murder. “To my future husband, I want you to know that I am thinking about you and working every day to become the best wife I can be and working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids one day,” Riley wrote. She continued, “I’m focusing on God and what he defines as a faithful Christian wife, and so that I can best embody those characteristics. I pray that you know it is with my full faith and trust in God that I know this relationship has been handcrafted by him.”
The 22-year-old nursing student further wrote, “I pray that we continue to glorify the Lord and prioritize him in every aspect of our lives and raise our future family to be God-fearing Christians as well.” She also wrote that she was praying that “God is the center of our relationship as it is a gift from him. I thank him for you before I even know you and can’t wait to love you in the best way I know how for the rest of our lives.” She signed the note, “Your future wife, Laken.”
Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and, under the policies of the outgoing Biden-Harris administration, was released to travel to New York City after having been initially detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents. He was arrested in New York last year and charged with “reckless endangerment of a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child,” but, pursuant to leftist “sanctuary city” practices, was never deported. During his trial, it was revealed that Ibarra was given a free flight to Georgia in September of 2023 and was put up in a hotel room, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. Less than five months later, Ibarra killed Riley.
In response to Wednesday’s verdict, Trump posted on Truth Social, “JUSTICE FOR LAKEN RILEY! The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes.” He continued, “Although the pain and heartbreak will last forever, hopefully this can help bring some peace and closure to her wonderful family who fought for Justice, and to ensure that other families don’t have to go through what they have.” Trump concluded, “We love you, Laken, and our hearts will always be with you. It is time to secure our Border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!”
Trump’s designated “border czar,” former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan, has touted the president-elect’s promised mass deportation program as a necessity in order to protect not just America’s sovereignty and national security, but to protect Americans from being murdered like Riley was. In an interview this week, Homan announced that the new Trump administration plans to deport all illegal immigrants in the country, starting with the violent ones. “Out of the gate, we’re concentrating on public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan said. Referring to a spate of governors and “sanctuary city” mayors who have already said that they would not cooperate with deportations, Homan continued, “What politician, whether you’re a mayor or governor, is saying, ‘No, I want public safety threats to remain in my community?’ I mean, give me a break.”
Homan also reiterated that illegal immigrants need to face “consequences,” rejecting a plan floated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to offer mas amnesty to those currently in the U.S. illegally. “You’re going to reward illegal behavior. If you reward amnesty, you’re never going to fix the border. This country is showing over and over again that if you don’t have consequences, they’re going to keep coming,” Homan insisted.
He continued, “Rewarding amnesty means millions of them are going to come, saying, ‘Look, I can cross the border illegally, I can lose my case in front of an immigration judge, and I still get to stay.’ And that’s what people don’t understand.” He added, “People say mass deportation is a bad thing. No, we just had [a] historic illegal immigrant crisis on the border. Millions of people crossed the border illegally. Every one of them committed a crime by crossing the border illegally.”
“It’s not okay to cross this border. It’s a crime. Every illegal alien that crossed that border committed a crime, and it’s not okay for you to be in this country illegally,” Homan said. He continued, “I don’t go 200 miles an hour to come to this interview tonight because I don’t [want to] get a ticket. I don’t lie on my taxes because I don’t want to get tax evasion. Well, it’s not okay to be in this country illegally. So if you’re in the country illegally, you got a problem.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
