Open-Borders Apologists Blame Everything but Open Borders
The murder of Laken Riley by an illegal alien in Georgia has shocked the nation. In addition to being a personal and community tragedy, it has sadly demonstrated the wider picture of America’s broken immigration system. This is evidenced by three things: the use of parole that allowed her alleged killer into the country in the first place, sanctuary policies that allow criminal aliens to lay low, and the tendency of open-borders advocates to blame anything but open borders as the reason tragedies occur.
Ms. Riley’s body, with “visible injuries,” was found on February 22, 2024, after a friend called the police when the nursing student did not return from a morning jog near the University of Georgia campus in Athens. The cause of death was blunt force trauma and the victim was beaten so badly that she had a disfigured skull. Police arrested 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal alien, Jose Ibarra, for the murder, and also arrested his brother, Diego, who was using a forged green card to work as a dishwasher at one of the university dining halls. And these were not the brothers’ first run-ins with the law.
Jose Ibarra was first encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol in September 2022 and was released on immigration ‘parole,’ as have hundreds of thousands of other illegal aliens under the Biden administration’s unprecedented abuse of parole. This abuse of parole allowed the alleged killer into the U.S. in the first place. He intended to apply for asylum and then went to New York City, where, in September 2023, he was charged with child endangerment and a motor vehicle license violation. ICE has claimed that Ibarra was released without its knowledge and before the agency had the opportunity to issue a detainer, although this looks like an attempt to save face given Mayorkas’ anti-enforcement policy edicts, which would have made the issuance of a detainer unlikely in the first place. And, even if a detainer had been issued, given New York City’s sanctuary policies, it likely would have been ignored. Jose’s brother, Diego, also claimed asylum and was arrested for drunk driving, driving without a license, shoplifting, and failure to appear for fingerprinting.
The fact that the Ibarra brothers lived within two miles of the campus due to Diego’s fraudulently-obtained job may have sealed Ms. Riley’s fate. With their permissive attitude to law enforcement and immigration background checks, New York City and Athens, Georgia – both sanctuary jurisdictions – were perfect places for illegal aliens inclined towards crime to select victims.
The Riley murder illustrates another wider point, that is, the tendency of open borders advocates to dismiss the obvious conclusion that open borders place Americans at risk. Instead, they seek almost any alternative to deflect attention. While the Ibarra case should lead even the most ardent apologist of illegal migration to admit that there may be a problem, some have refused to even consider the role of open borders in flooding the U.S. with criminals who prey on Americans. Instead, they blame everything but immigration.
The Associated Press ran a story arguing that the murder in Athens “highlights the fears of solo female athletes,” avoiding all mentions of illegal migration and merely referring to suspect Jose Ibarra as an “Athens resident.” The HuffPost doubled down on the “dangers of running alone for women” narrative while saying nothing about the suspected killer’s immigration status. It did mention in passing, a similar murder, that of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa in 2018, which was also committed by an illegal alien. But the narrative was suggesting that running alone was the real issue.
The victim blaming went further still, with one story, by WSB-TV Atlanta, seeming to imply that Riley’s murder was as violent as it was because “Ibarra likely panicked when [Ms. Riley] fought back.” Is this suggesting that victims simply allow themselves to be assaulted, beaten, or raped to avoid causing an assailant to “panic”?
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), when asked about the murder on television, responded that “the important thing to focus on is any one instance [of illegal alien crime] shouldn’t shape our overall immigration policy.” What Porter omits is that the taking of Laken Riley’s young life was not just “one instance” of an egregious crime perpetrated by an illegal alien – as FAIR’s online archive of such crimes sadly demonstrates. Instead, it was yet another example of Americans being victimized by foreign criminals who would not even be here were it not for the willful refusal of government entities – at all levels – to enforce our immigration laws.
The disturbing truth is that, for the open-borders propaganda machine, the main concern is to allow nothing to impede the pro-mass-migration agenda. In their zeal to maintain the status quo, crimes committed by illegal aliens should be ignored, explained away, or treated as isolated incidents. Apparently, Americans who get killed or hurt as a result are just collateral damage. It is high time we reject that heartless mentality and start putting the lives and safety of Americans ahead of the interests of criminal aliens who have no legal right to be here.