The White House has broken its silence on the murder of 22-year-old Georgian nursing student Laken Riley, with the suspect believed to be an undocumented migrant from Venezuela.
“We would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Laken Hope Riley,” a White House official said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
The statement notably omitted any mention of illegal Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was arrested for Friday’s murder and is now being held in the Clarke County Jail.
The 26-year-old crossed the border into El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, but was released from a detention center due to lack of space.
“People must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law if found guilty. Since this is an active case, we should refer you to state law enforcement and ICE,” the White House official said.
Nursing student Laken Riley was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia campus
The statement came the same day the White House announced that President Joe Biden would make his second visit to the border as president.
He will be in Brownsville, Texas, the same day that Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas, visiting the southern border.
The men are not expected to cross paths.
Trump has condemned Riley’s killing and is expected to mention her in his remarks Thursday.
Riley, a nursing student, was found dead by police on Thursday after she failed to return from her morning jog. University of Georgia police found her near where she had been jogging through the campus intramural fields with “visible injuries.”
‘Crooked Joe Biden’s Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens! The horrible murder of 22 year old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should NEVER have happened! The monster who illegally took his own life entered our country in 2022… then was released AGAIN by radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“If I am your President, we will immediately close the border, stop the invasion, and on day one we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American history! May God bless Laken Riley and her family!!! Our prayers are with you!’
Jose Ibarra, 26, was arrested on charges including murder and kidnapping in the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Hope Riley in Athens, Georgia
Riley was killed by “blunt force trauma,” police confirmed.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a 911 call, concealing the death of another and failing to appear on a fingerprintable charge .
His illegal status prompted Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to publicly accuse the Biden administration of its immigration policies.
Ibarra was arrested in 2022 after illegally entering the U.S. and was “paroled and released for further processing,” according to an ICE statement.
He was also arrested by New York City police last September and charged with “acting in a manner to injure a child under 17 years of age and motorcycle license violation,” but police released him “before an arrestee could be released,” ICE said.
Police said he did not know the victim and that the crime was a “random solo act.”
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officers searched Ibarra’s apartment in Athens and evidence shows he acted alone.
‘He didn’t know her at all. I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened,” Clark said.
‘The evidence is robust. It is supported by important community input, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were assisted by video footage from our campus security camera network.”
President Joe Biden visits the border on Thursday
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday that if he were to run for president again, he would “initiate the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history.”
Since Biden came to power in 2021, there have been more than 7.2 million migrants entered the US via the southern border.
That’s more people than the population of 36 states. Arizona, for example, had a population of 7.1 million, according to the 2020 census.
Trump has promised the “largest deportation” of illegal immigrants in American history if he becomes president again in 2024.