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Republicans made sure that Laken Riley, the nursing student whose killing has been blamed on an illegal immigrant, would be part of President Biden’s State of the Union day.
Hours before Mr. Biden was slated to speak, the House passed the Laken Riley Act, which blames the president for Riley’s death and imposes rules that could have prevented the catch-and-release of the Venezuelan migrant accused in her slaying. Riley was killed two weeks earlier while out for a morning run on a college campus in Georgia.
The vote highlighted the power of Riley’s death. More than three dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the 251-170 vote to pass the bill.
“Laken Riley’s death was foreordained the day that this administration took office and reversed the successful Trump policies that had finally secured our borders,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, California Republican.
He ticked off the criminal history of Jose Ibarra, who was caught and released under Mr. Biden’s border policies and is now charged with Riley’s killing. Mr. Ibarra had several run-ins with police after he was caught and released, but he was never detained, allowing him to be out in the community when Riley was slain on Feb. 22.
Authorities this week revealed that his brother Diego Ibarra, also caught and released at the border and probed in the Riley homicide investigation, attempted to bite a Border Patrol agent. He later cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet, absconded from deportation agents and obtained a handgun in the U.S. He has tattoos and social media posts connecting him to a Venezuelan gang.
“How many such monsters has this president allowed into our country? We do not know, but we are slowly, painfully and tragically finding out, victim by victim,” Mr. McClintock said.
Mr. Biden, in his State of the Union address to Congress on Thursday night, mentioned Riley’s name — though he seemed to call her “Lincoln Riley,” who he said was “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
“To her parents, I say my heart goes out,” he said, pointing out that he’s lost a child too.
But he said the answer to the border is to revive a measure negotiated in the Senate that would add more resources to Homeland Security and the immigration courts to speed up processing of illegal newcomers.
It also included a new expulsion power that could kick in when illegal immigration got “overwhelming,” Mr. Biden said.
SEE ALSO: Parents of Laken Riley say no to State of the Union invitation
“It’d be a winner for America,” he said. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it.”
The bill has already failed in the Senate, doomed in a bipartisan filibuster, and House Republicans have said it won’t go anywhere in their chamber, either.
Mr. Biden blamed former President Donald Trump for that, saying he pressured Republicans.
The bill that passed the House on Thursday rebukes Mr. Biden for his management of the border and demands he end catch-and-release policies.
It also would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain any illegal immigrant in the country who is arrested on theft charges and would create legal standing for states to sue the federal government to demand compliance with immigration laws.
Despite the significant Democratic support, the legislation is a long shot for action in the Democratic-led Senate.
Still, the symbolism of the vote just hours before Mr. Biden addressed the nation from the chamber was striking.
“Laken Riley is dead because of Joe Biden’s policies,” said Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey Republican.
Riley’s killing and a spate of other high-profile crimes blamed on illegal immigrants have cut through years of gridlock on immigration, delivering a poignant victim to what is often portrayed as a victimless crime.
Republicans have demanded that Mr. Biden acknowledge Riley’s death and use it as an inflection point to reverse three years of border chaos.
Some Democrats took the invitation. The 37 who joined Republicans came from all corners of the country and included many of the most politically vulnerable Democrats.
“This legislation sends a clear message that crime will not be tolerated and those involved will be held accountable,” Rep. Steven Horsford, Nevada Democrat, said in a statement explaining his vote.
Hardly any Democrats spoke during the debate on the bill on the House floor, leaving Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, to argue against the bill.
He expressed condolences to Riley’s family and said her killer should be prosecuted, but he accused Republicans of “exploiting her death” and called the bill “unserious.”
He said the bill would apply to illegal immigrants accused of crimes even if they haven’t been convicted. He said the bill could even snare an illegal immigrant Dreamer who has been in the country for decades and who could eventually be exonerated.
“The case of Laken Riley is a tragedy, but as is often said, bad cases make bad law,” he said.
Republicans said Mr. Nadler was conflating illegal immigrants with American citizens in demanding due process.
“The people involved here have no right to be in the country,” said Rep. Dan Bishop, North Carolina Republican.
Republicans acknowledged that ordering the Biden administration to detain illegal immigrants accused of theft may be futile. Similar mandates are on the books for other crimes yet are often flouted. The Homeland Security Department says it lacks funding for beds to detain all the criminal migrants.
Republican lawmakers said they included language in the bill to give state attorneys general legal standing to sue over catch-and-release and other Biden policies.
The intent is to roll back a Supreme Court ruling last year that found Texas did not have standing to sue to stop Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ policy declaring that being in the country illegally was no longer a stand-alone reason for deportation and ordering agents and officers to look for reasons not to deport someone.
Mr. Nadler said the provision was likely illegal.
Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican representing Athens, Georgia, where Riley lived, invited her parents to the State of the Union address, but he said they declined.
He said he would leave the seat empty as a memorial to Riley and other “American victims of illegal alien crime.”
“As Joe Biden attempts to paint a rosy picture of the crime-ridden country he has created, he will look up at an empty seat that memorializes those we’ve lost because of his open border policies,” he said on social media.
In addition to Riley’s death, a rape in Louisiana, the slaying of a 2-year-old in Maryland and a gang intimidation case in Tennessee have been blamed on illegal immigrants in recent weeks.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican, has described the border as “Joe Biden’s crime scene.”
Immigrant rights activists have been set on their heels, complaining that immigrants as a whole are being stigmatized by crimes attributed to a few bad apples.
They hoped for Mr. Biden to deliver that message to the country in his speech.
They also pleaded with him to ditch his embrace of many of the get-tough approaches President Trump pioneered and to instead revive the 2020 version of Candidate Biden, who labeled the Trump policies cruel and vowed to reverse them.
“We know firsthand from working with communities that Americans do not want cruelty toward desperate children and families as their only option,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refugee.
Mr. Biden, though, is being pulled in the other direction by border chaos he has been unable to stem for three years.
He initially tried denying an unusual surge. Then he tried leaning into it by using administrative “parole” powers to ask migrants to schedule their arrivals and get some form of approval. That resulted in an increase in unauthorized migration at ports of entry while making only minor dents in the total illegal border crossings.
The numbers tell the story.
In December 2020, the last full month under Mr. Trump, Customs and Border Protection nabbed roughly 75,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border. More than 74,000 were expelled, deported or detained.
In December 2023, under Mr. Biden, CBP tallied more than 300,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border. Mr. Mayorkas estimated that more than 85%, or more than 255,000, were caught and released.
Under Mr. Biden, record levels of fentanyl have flowed into the U.S. and the Border Patrol has detected an unprecedented number of people on the terrorism watchlist attempting to sneak into the country.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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