Title: Justice for Laken Riley: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Immigration Debate
In a heart-wrenching turn of events, a vigil was held on Monday, February 6, at the University of Georgia (UGA) for Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was found dead on Thursday after going jogging on campus. The local coroner reported that Laken died due to blunt force trauma to the head (Reyes, 2023). However, the tragic loss of this young life has led to a renewed firestorm over illegal immigration, with Congressional Republican lawmakers and former President Donald Trump denouncing the suspected killer as a “monster,” despite him being an undocumented migrant from Venezuela.
This conflation of Laken’s death with a migrant crime wave is misplaced, and it risks obscuring the fundamental principles of American justice. First and foremost, the suspect, José Antonio Ibarra, is still a suspect. While he faces felony murder, false imprisonment, and other charges, he is entitled to the presumption of innocence – a cornerstone of our criminal justice system. Under the United States Constitution, Ibarra, like any other person on US soil, is entitled to due process.
The Supreme Court has explicitly extended these protections to undocumented people based on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments (Justia, n.d.). Rushing to judgement about Ibarra is a violation of these principles. Early reporting on Ibarra indicates that he was arrested in 2022 for entering the US illegally and then released. He was later arrested by New York City police and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation. However, it is essential not to jump to conclusions based on these facts regarding Ibarra or the broader population of undocumented immigrants.
Extensive research has failed to establish a link between immigrants and crime. In 2023, Stanford University researchers found that the connection between immigration and crime was “mythical” and unsupported by 140 years of data (Stanford News, 2023). In 2020, a Princeton University study revealed that undocumented immigrants in Texas had fewer felony arrests than legal residents (Princeton University, 2020). In New York City, which has welcomed approximately 170,000 unauthorized migrants since Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing them there in April 2022, there has been no surge in crime during this period (The New York Times, 2023).
It is crucial not to focus solely on the worst elements among the undocumented population of around 10.5 million people in the US. Reducing all unauthorized migrants to the stereotype of a violent criminal ignores their genuine contributions to this country. Undocumented people have served as front-line workers during the pandemic, helped rescue children from kidnappers, and include Wall Street executives, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, military veterans, and Harvard graduates.
The typical response to Laken’s killing from the conservative camp has been South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who tweeted that “Nations like Venezuela are emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals to send them to America” (The New York Times, 2023). Such inflammatory rhetoric is harmful and inaccurate. A Pew Research survey conducted in February 2023 found that, despite evidence to the contrary, 57% of Americans believe that large numbers of people seeking to enter the country lead to more crime (Pew Research Center, 2023).
This dangerous narrative can have real–world consequences. For instance, Latino student groups at UGA report receiving “hate comments,” although they had no involvement in Laken’s killing, and the Guardian Angels, a vigilante group in New York City, recently assaulted a man in the middle of a Fox News broadcast. The man was incorrectly identified as a “migrant,” and he is a New Yorker from The Bronx (The New York Times, 2023). Even an altercation between New York City police and seven migrants in Times Square has proven to be less clear-cut than initially thought, with the New York Times reporting that the police initiated the encounter (The New York Times, 2023).
Whoever is found guilty of killing Laken deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law. Until then, it is irresponsible for Republicans to use her death to score political points. House Speaker Mike Johnson called on President Joe Biden to “close the border” in light of Laken’s death (Johnson, 2023). However, in early February, Congressional Republicans blocked a potential bipartisan immigration deal that would have given the president authority to do just that under certain circumstances (CNN, 2023).
If Ibarra is found guilty, the anger surrounding Laken’s case should be directed at lawmakers who have repeatedly failed to overhaul our immigration system, resulting in a dysfunctional status quo that may have allowed a dangerous individual to be paroled into the country. There are no partisan “sides” in the tragic death of a beloved, innocent young person. Laken Riley deserves justice – not to be exploited as a symbol of xenophobia or hate.
References:
CNN. (2023, February 5). House Republicans block Biden’s bid to end deportation protections for Haitians. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/politics/house-gop-immigration-deal/index.html
Johnson, M. (2023, February 4). Speaker McCarthy: It’s time for President Biden to close the border [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/SpeakerMcCarthy/status/1621930487598042112
Justia. (n.d.). The Supreme Court and Illegal Immigrants: A Primer on the Legal Status of Aliens in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.justia.com/50-state/2016/immigration/the-supreme-court-and-illegal-immigrants-a-primer-on-the-legal-status-of-aliens-in-the-united-states/
Pew Research Center. (2023, February 9). Most Americans believe large numbers of people seeking to enter the U.S. illegally lead to more crime [Survey]. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/02/09/most-americans-believe-large-numbers-of-people-seeking-to-enter-the-u-s-illegally-lead-to-more-crime/
Princeton University. (2020). Immigrants, Crime and the Labor Market: A National Study [Study]. Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/11/05/immigrants-crime-and-labor-market
Reyes, R. A. (2023, February 6). Opinion: The border compromise would’ve helped—a lot [Commentary]. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/06/opinions/border-compromise-republicans-immigration-reyes/index.html
Stanford News. (2023, February 6). Study: Mythical Link Between Crime and Immigration Debunked [Press Release]. Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2023/02/06/study-mythical-link-between-crime-and-immigration-debunked/
The New York Times. (2023, February 7). Assault on Times Square Subway Platform Was Not as Simple as the Police Initially Reported [Article]. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/nyregion/times-square-subway-assault.html
The New York Times. (2023, February 7). A Killing at Georgia University Sparks a Conservative Outcry [Article]. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/us/georgia-university-killing-conservative-reaction.html
The New York Times. (2023, February 8). A Vigilante Group’s Assault on a Man in the Subway [Article]. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/nyregion/guardian-angels-subway-assault.html
