() – Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is trying to use to its advantage former President Bill Clinton’s comment on Sunday that the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley “probably would not have happened” if migrants, including her alleged killer , would have been “properly investigated.”
Clinton’s comment came as she criticized Trump for derailing a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. The project stalled in January when Trump’s refusal led to Republican support eroding. Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking to counter Trump’s attacks on immigration, has promised to revive that bill and sign it into law if she wins the presidency.
Clinton said the bill would have led to a “full investigation before” people crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Now, Trump killed the bill,” he said.
He then pointed to Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was killed while jogging in February. The suspect, José Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested in 2022 after illegally entering the United States, according to a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but was released for further processing.
“There was a case in Georgia not too long ago, right? They made an announcement about it, a young woman who was murdered by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if everyone had been properly investigated, that probably wouldn’t have happened,” Clinton said. “But if everyone is properly vetted, which is not happening, and the United States is not having enough babies to support its population, we need immigrants who have been vetted to work.”
However, the Trump campaign presented Clinton’s comments as an indictment of President Joe Biden and Harris’ management of border security, noting that Riley’s alleged killer had entered the United States in 2022, long before it was written. that bill.
“Kamala Harris claimed the border was ‘secure’ just days after Laken Riley’s killer and illegal immigrant, José Ibarra, enters the country. “Ibarra was captured at the border and later released into the country by Kamala Harris,” the Trump campaign said in a statement. “President Trump will secure the border and stop catch and release. That’s why he was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.”
The Trump War Room account on
“Clinton said Trump boycotted a bipartisan border security bill that Vice President Harris supported that would strengthen vetting of people entering the country,” campaign spokesman Ian Sams said in a separate post on X.
The exchange demonstrated how Democrats have attempted to address what polls have shown to be one of Trump’s strongest issues, and how the former president has responded, accusing Biden and Harris of acting too late and alone with the presidential election looming.
Riley’s murder and the suspect’s immigration status renewed debate over the country’s immigration policies at the highest level. Biden showed off a pin with Riley’s name at the State of the Union address in March.
Ibarra was indicted in May on charges of murder and aggravated assault with intent to rape, as well as for an earlier incident in which he allegedly looked into a student’s window. He has pleaded not guilty.
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