Republicans seek new laws against migrants after murder of nursing student

2024-02-28 05:22:02

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans are pushing a measure to require all city and county police departments to help identify, arrest and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

The proposal advanced on Tuesday through the Public Security and Homeland Security committees of the state House of Representatives and will go to the lower house plenary session for debate, following police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a woman to death. nursing student on the University of Georgia campus.

José Ibarra was arrested Friday on charges of murder and assault in connection with the death of Laken Riley, 22, last Thursday. Ibarra, 26, is a Venezuelan citizen who, according to immigration authorities, entered the country illegally in 2022. It is unknown if he had requested asylum.

Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University, Athens Campus, following beginning her college career at the University of Georgia’s Athens Campus. Her body was located Thursday following a roommate reported that she did not return following going for a morning run in a wooded area.

The University of Georgia announced Tuesday that it would allocate $7.3 million to beef up campus security, and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives demanded information regarding Ibarra from the Department of Homeland Security.

With the new law, Georgia would move closer to other states with strict immigration measures, such as Texas, which starting in March will allow police to detain migrants who enter the state illegally and give local judges the authority to order their removal from the state. country.

Georgia passed a strict anti-immigration law in 2011, although it later repealed parts of it. That regulation allowed agents to detain anyone considered “suspicious” to review their documents, forced government offices and large companies to use a federal database called E-Verify to review the immigration status of new employees, required that applicants for public subsidies prove their citizenship and created a board to sanction local governments that did not follow what was established.

The bill approved by the Georgia commission on Tuesday would also establish new requirements for how prison authorities must check with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to determine whether they are known to have A certain person is in the country illegally.

“This issue is, without a doubt, the most important issue in my community right now as we deal with this horrendous tragedy in Athens over the past few days,” said Republican state Rep. Houston Gaines.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center recorded last July that only six of Georgia’s 159 counties have agreements with ICE. Five of them are exclusive for prisons. Oconee County, a suburb of Athens, issues warrants for immigration or deportation violations. State agencies also cooperate with ICE.

At least three Georgia counties suspended their jail cooperation with ICE, according to the center, including two large suburban Atlanta counties where the issue was a central part of the campaigns: Gwinnett and Cobb counties.

Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the bill’s backers “are determined to force localities to enforce immigration laws,” even if police departments don’t have that ability. .

“Unfortunately, they have exploited the death of a young woman to score political points in a way that is truly heartbreaking,” Otero stated.

Republican state Rep. Jesse Petrea said the initiative is necessary to enforce existing laws that require county police departments to check with ICE on people who do not appear to be U.S. citizens.

“Maybe half of our county police follow that law,” Petrea said. “That’s unfortunate, and that’s what we’re trying to address with this.”

County police deny they are ignoring the law, said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Association of County Police Departments. He claimed that even Athens-Clarke County, which Republicans identify as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction for migrants, complies with the measure.

Petrea’s bill would make county police chiefs who fail to verify immigration statuses guilty of violating their oath. The bill would also deny state funding to prisons and county police departments that do not cooperate.

The proposal states that inmates cannot be held for more than 48 hours for an immigration detainer request without an order signed by a federal judge, but later states that county police and prisons must comply with all requests. ICE detention.

Gaines is promoting a second initiative, 1359, which would allow people to request a tax refund if cities or counties refuse to contact immigration authorities. Refunds would also apply if a local government refuses to enforce anti-homelessness laws.

The University of Georgia said it would increase its security budget by 20% to hire more officers and improve salaries. The institution also indicated that there will be more security personnel who will patrol the areas where students gather at night, including 24-hour coverage in libraries. He added that a subsidized ride-sharing system will operate from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., instead of four hours a night.

The university said it would install a system that combines security cameras with emergency buttons. The university removed the emergency buttons, noting that now that students always carry a cell phone, the buttons were rarely used. It also plans to improve lighting at pedestrian crossings, license plate readers and more fencing.

The university said the package will cost $7.3 million, including $5.5 million in one-time investments and $1.8 million in recurring expenses.

In Washington, Republicans who chair several House committees sent letters to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding information regarding how the agency handled the Ibarra case.

Newly filed affidavits claim Ibarra used an object as a weapon during the crime and is accused of “disfiguring” Riley’s skull. Police say Ibarra dragged the student to a remote area on Thursday, according to affidavits obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Authorities have not said exactly how Riley was killed, limiting themselves to revealing that her death was due to blunt force trauma.

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, who oversees criminal prosecutions in Athens-Clarke County, said Monday she will appoint a special prosecutor to prosecute Ibarra. Gonzalez, who is seeking re-election this year, has come under fire for being ineffective, losing several cases and for the departure of several prosecutors from her office.

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