President Joe Biden stunned Republicans during his State of the Union speech by going on the border attack and directly addressing Laken Riley’s parents, Independent reports.
During the president’s speech, Georgia Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene called on him to name Ms. Laken Riley, a student killed in Georgia, allegedly by an undocumented migrant.
Ms. Greene had been handing out badges with Laken Riley’s name on them in the run-up to the State of the Union ceremony, even after the slain student’s parents declined an invitation to attend. They declined an invitation from Representative Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican.
Nursing student Miss Riley, 22, was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. A 26-year-old man from Venezuela was later arrested. Police called the crime a “crime of opportunity” and the man, Jose Ibarra, was charged with felony murder, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Republicans have used Ms. Riley’s death to criticise the Biden administration’s border policy. The president used part of his speech Thursday night to condemn Republicans for rejecting a bipartisan border security bill after former President Donald Trump opposed it. Mr. Biden said in a forceful address:
That bipartisan bill would hire 1,500 more security agents and officers, 100 more immigration judges, help tackle the backlog of two million cases. 4,300 more asylum officers and new policy so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years now. A more high-tech drug detection machine to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles smuggling fentanyl into America … killing thousands of children. I believe that given the opportunity for a majority in the House and Senate would endorse the bill … But unfortunately, politics [has] derailed this bill so far. I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they block the bill.
On Thursday afternoon, the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act after it was introduced by Mr. Collins. Under the Act, any migrant who commits burglary or theft must be detained.
Police said the suspect in Ms. Riley’s death had crossed the border illegally.
Athens-Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson said Ms. Riley’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
“Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” Mr. Biden said in an unscripted moment as he picked up the pin handed to him by Ms. Greene, at one point mispronouncing her first name as “Lincoln”. He also added:
To her parents. I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself – I understand. But look if we change the dynamic at the border … people pay the smugglers 8,000 bucks to get across the border because they know if they get … into the country – It’s six to eight years before they have a hearing. And it’s worth taking the chance … But if it’s only six months, six weeks. The idea is it’s highly unlikely that people will pay that money and [go] all that way knowing that they’ll be able to be kicked out quickly. I would respectfully suggest to my Republican friends … to the American people – get this bill done. We need to act now.
While handing out the pins, Ms. Greene told Fox News that “My district was fine with me calling him a liar last year,” adding that “I’ll decide in the moment” if she’ll make a similar outburst this year. She later decided Mr. Biden was due for a heckling.
