Shortly, I will introduce legislation to establish a private cause of action against government officials for harm resulting from their willful disregard of federal immigration law, including lawfully issued immigration detainers filed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This legislation will create a statutory exception to sovereign and governmental immunity for public officials and government employees related to any harm suffered at the hands of an illegal immigrant who has been released from custody after failing to notify ICE of the illegal immigrant’s presence in the United States or failing to honor an ICE detainer. 

 

In recent years, cities, municipalities and elected officials across this Commonwealth have adopted policies directing law enforcement agencies and correctional institutions to ignore lawful immigration detainers issued by ICE or prohibit reporting the custody of such illegal immigrants. Instead of allowing federal immigration authorities to assume custody of illegal immigrants upon their release from detention, these localized polices result in the release of these offenders into our communities. The news headlines are replete with the entirely foreseeable harm impacting our public safety. This legislation will establish a causal link between that knowing release and the foreseeable harm as a matter of law. 

 

The heinous murder of Laken Riley at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was previously detained illustrates the harm which we intend to mitigate. 

 

Laken was a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University (having graduated from her undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia (UGA)). On February 22, 2024, she was jogging at UGA when she was brutally attacked and murdered. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. 

 

Her murderer was Jos  Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant associated with the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang. He illegally crossed the United States border near El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, was detained by federal authorities and released into our country. According to news sources, Ibarra stayed at the infamous Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in New York City before moving to be with his brother in Georgia. 

 

Ibarra was arrested multiple times by federal and state authorities before the murder: 

 

• In September 2023, Ibarra was arrested in New York for “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17” and driving without a license. He was released. According to CNN, ICE claimed there was no federal immigration detainer on Ibarra because he was released "before a detainer could be issued.” 

 

• In October 2023, Ibarra and his gang-associate brother were arrested in Georgia for theft from a local Walmart, and they were released. 

 

In December 2023, a bench warrant was issued for Ibarra for failing to appear in court in the theft case, again, an entirely foreseeable eventuality. Laken was murdered two months later.