MAGA Demands Death Penalty for Migrant Arrested Over Killing of Laken Riley

A number of prominent Donald Trump-supporting Republicans are demanding the death penalty for Jose Antonio Ibarra, the 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant arrested on suspicion of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia.

Riley's body was discovered in a wooded area on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus on Thursday after a concerned friend called police when she didn't return from a run.

On Friday, UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark said Ibarra had been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another in regard to her death.

Newsweek contacted the UGA Department by telephone and email at 4:15 a.m. on Saturday. This article will be updated if they wish to comment.

Clark confirmed Ibarra was not a U.S. citizen, adding, "right now, I don't know his full status." Citing multiple DHS [Department of Homeland Security] sources, NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Ibarra crossed into the U.S. illegally at El Paso, Texas, in September 2022. He was "released due to lack of detention space," but this has not been officially confirmed.

The report that Ibarra might be an illegal immigrant sparked a furious response from Trump-supporting MAGA Republicans, including two members of congress.

On X, Georgia House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene posted: "Ibarra is an illegal alien and murdered a young woman the age of my own children. Deportation is not enough. He deserves the death penalty."

Greene later reposted Bradley's claim that Ibarra was in the U.S. illegally, adding: "You want to break in our country, ILLEGALLY, and murder one of our girls. DEATH PENALTY!!!"

Rep. Mike Collins, another Trump-supporting House Republican from Georgia, also said Ibarra should be killed in a post on X. He commented: "Jose Antonio Ibarra would make a great first passenger for the new Pinochet Air."

This appears to be a reference to the so-called 'death flights' that took place in Chile under the regime of right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet, when some prisoners were thrown out of helicopters leading to their deaths. These killings have inspired a number of memes on the contemporary U.S. hard-right, including promises of "free helicopter rides" for those they deem undesirable.

Other conservative commentators questioned whether the Biden administration was responsible for Riley's death. 'The Vigilant Fox,' an X account with more than 810,000 followers, posted: "Is Biden's open border responsible for the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley?"

Another X account, which uses a picture of Trump as its profile picture, shared a photo of Riley, adding: "Impeach and remove anyone who is responsible for this mess at our border. Make them serve the sentence along with Ibarra."

A study was published in 2020 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. It found that, in Texas between 2012 and 2018, immigrants, including those in the U.S. illegally, were less than half as likely to be arrested for violent crime or drug use as native-born Americans.

The University of Georgia said Riley had graduated from the college in 2023, then enrolled on a nursing program at Augusta University, which has a campus in Athens.

During his press conference on Friday, Clark said Ibarra's residence had been searched, with the evidence indicating he acted alone. He added: "He did not know her at all. I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened.

"The evidence is robust. It is supported by key input by the community, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were assisted by video footage from our campus security cameras network."

Just one day before Riley's death, in a Facebook post, her mother, Allyson Phillips, said she was missing her daughter, while on vacation in Colorado.