Boebert votes to Deport Laken Riley’s Murderer

Today, the House passed H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act, to help protect Americans from criminal illegal aliens.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) said, "There are currently 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions roaming the streets of America. The American people are being subjected to an illegal alien crime wave caused by the left’s open-border and sanctuary city policies that have resulted in the preventable deaths of victims like Laken Riley. Had Biden’s bureaucrats enforced the law, Laken Riley’s alleged killer would have been deported and not released into the country in the first place. Parents and loved ones should not have to suffer because of the reckless open-border policies of the Biden Regime. The Laken Riley Act holds these criminals accountable and prevents the Biden Regime from releasing these criminals and murderers into our communities.”

Background:

Today, the House passed H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act, with a strong bipartisan vote of 251-170. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is a cosponsor of this legislation and voted in favor of this bill.  

Congresswoman Boebert has an A+ Lifetime Rating from NumbersUSA for her legislation, votes and efforts to secure the border and end illegal immigration. For a full list of Congresswoman Boebert’s work to secure the border, click HERE.

On February 22, 2024, Laken Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was murdered. Her alleged murderer— Jose Antonio Ibarra—illegally entered the United States from Venezuela and was arrested by Border Patrol on September 8, 2022. Because the Biden administration abused parole authority, Ibarra was released into the United States.

Ibarra was subsequently arrested in New York City – a sanctuary city – for driving a scooter with a child without a license. The New York Police Department released Ibarra in August of 2022. In October 2023, Ibarra was arrested in Athens, Georgia, for shoplifting and again in December of 2023 for failure to appear for a fingerprintable offense.

Background courtesy of the Committee on the Judiciary:

H.R. 7511 makes it crystal clear that an illegal alien who commits a theft offense, as Laken Riley’s alleged killer did, will be a priority for arrest and must be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) until the illegal alien is removed from the country.

The Laken Riley Act also ensures the Biden Administration can be held accountable for its far-left immigration enforcement and open-borders policies—policies that directly resulted in Laken Riley’s senseless murder—by providing states standing to sue Executive Branch officials for their refusal to enforce the immigration laws as written by Congress.

H.R. 7511 requires ICE to arrest illegal aliens who commit theft offenses and mandates that these aliens are detained until they are removed from the country so they cannot reoffend and continue to victimize Americans.Mere months before allegedly murdering Laken Riley, the illegal alien charged with killing her was arrested for theft, but local authorities in Georgia released him, and ICE did not lodge a detainer for the alien. Through a detainer, ICE requests cooperation from local enforcement to ensure that ICE can take custody of the alien when the alien is released by local authorities. The Laken Riley Act would mandate ICE detention for illegal aliens who are charged with, convicted of, arrested for, admit having committed, or admit committing acts that constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense. H.R. 7511 further requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue a detainer for these illegal aliens and take custody of them “effectively and expeditiously.”

H.R. 7511 ensures that states have standing to bring civil actions against open-borders federal officials who refuse to enforce immigration law or violate the law to the detriment of Americans.The Biden Administration released Laken Riley’s alleged killer into the United States in 2022 through its violations of the parole and detention requirements under federal immigration law.

H.R. 2 as passed by the House would ensure that the Biden Administration could not exploit the law in this way, the Laken Riley Act adds another safeguard to help ensure the immigration laws are followed by providing states standing to bring a civil action against federal officials for the failure to enforce the five most abused immigration statutes, including mandatory detention requirements at the southwest border, individual parole authority that is limited to case-by-case determinations, and visa sanctions against countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals. In doing so, H.R. 7511 responds to the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in United States v. Texas, in which the Court held that states did not have standing to challenge the Biden Administration’s lax immigration enforcement policies.