Donald Trump’s presidential campaign seized upon a comment by Bill Clinton that they said blames Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for a Georgia nursing student’s death.
Clinton was campaigning in the state on Sunday when he brought up the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student at the University of Georgia in Athens.
“You got a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn’t you? They made an ad about it, a young woman who had been killed by an immigrant,” Clinton said Sunday in Fort Valley.
“Yeah, well, if they’d all been properly vetted that probably wouldn’t have happened. But if they are all properly vetted, that doesn’t happen and America is not having enough babies to keep our population up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work.”
Riley was killed while out for a jog in February. Her body was found near a lake with the cause of death attributed to blunt-force trauma and asphyxiation.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national who authorities said entered the U.S. illegally, was accused of her murder. He is facing 10 charges including felony murder, malice murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with intent to rape and kidnapping.
Ibarra has pleaded not guilty. The trial will get underway next month.
According to the New York Post, Ibarra was arrested in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, but was out of jail in less than 24 hours due to a lack of detention space.
The Trump campaign, which has linked illegal immigration to crime, said Clinton’s comments revealed how Biden and Harris have failed securing the border.
“Kamala Harris claimed the border was ‘secure’ just days after Laken Riley’s illegal immigrant (accused) killer Jose Ibarra crossed into the nation,” the campaign said in a statement to CNN. “Ibarra was caught at the border and then released into the country by Kamala Harris. President Trump will secure the border and stop catch and release.”
However, a spokesperson for Harris said on social media that Trump is to blame for killing a bipartisan border security bill that would have strengthened the vetting process.