Who is Laken Riley? Trump names slain nursing student in speech
In his address to a joint congress on Tuesday, President Trump named Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was killed in February 2024, while speaking about unauthorized immigrants.
“The best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized and horrifically murdered,” Trump said.
Riley was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing when she went out for a run on Feb. 22, 2024. Prosecutors said she was encountered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, who killed her during a struggle. Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and was found guilty in November of murder and other crimes by a judge, who alone heard and decided the case. He was sentenced to life without parole.
“Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien,” Trump said.
Trump and other Republicans blamed former President Joe Biden for her death because Ibarra had been arrested for illegal entry in September 2022 near El Paso, Texas, amid an unprecedented surge in migration and released to pursue his case in immigration court.
Trump’s first piece of legislation when he took office was the Laken Riley Act, a bill that requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. The bill won bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
Under the law, federal officials are required to detain any migrant arrested or charged with crimes like shoplifting or assaulting a police officer or crimes that injure or kill someone.
“If you come into this country illegally and you commit a crime, you should not be free to roam the streets of this nation,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who helped push the bill through the Senate.
The bill also empowers state attorneys general to sue the federal government for harm caused by failures or decisions in immigration enforcement that harm states or people. That includes releasing migrants from custody or failing to detain migrants who have received deportation orders.
The provision gives states some power in setting immigration policy when they have been trying to push back against presidential decisions under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, 46 Democrats in the House and 12 Democrats in the Senate supported the measure.
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