BORDER TOWN USA: A Venezuelan migrant who illegally crossed the Mexican border into Texas in 2022 is charged in the murder of a Georgia nursing student. The Biden administration released the Venezuelan national in El Paso where he listed an NGO in New York City as his destination.
A source within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) told Breitbart Texas that its officers in the Atlanta field office arrested 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra where he is now charged with the alleged murder of University of Georgia – Athens (UGA) nursing student, 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley. The source, not authorized to speak with the media, said Ibarra entered the United States in September 2022 and was subsequently released due to overcrowding in migrant shelters.
NEW: Jose Antonio Ibarra’s booking photo via the Clarke County Sheriff's Office.
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) February 24, 2024
The other photo obtained from DHS sources is from when he crossed into El Paso, Texas illegally back in 2022. pic.twitter.com/dAXUfrAKV6
Officials in the El Paso Sector became overwhelmed that month when a new migrant surge began in the area. The City of El Paso reported that migrant releases by the Biden administration rose from 250 per day in August to “as high as 1,000 per day in September.”
“However, the main countries migrants are coming from today are Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba,” City officials stated. “Though the numbers have been as high as 90% and as low as 50% from Venezuela, the number is currently holding at approximately 70%.”
Due to the high number of migrants being released by Border Patrol onto the streets of El Paso, City officials began busing migrants from El Paso to New York City, Breitbart Texas reported. The City chartered 25 buses and transported 1,135 migrnts to New York City by mid-September 2022.
The Title 42 CDC Covid Emergency protocol was still in effect at the time of Ibarra’s crossing into the United States. The Biden administration could have expelled the Venezuelan migrant immediately instead of releasing him in El Paso.
According to CBP documents obtained from sources—The sponsor address Jose Antonio Ibarra provided after crossing illegally in El Paso was The Covenant House in New York— Their website says they are a youth homeless shelter.
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) February 24, 2024
News Nation journalist Ali Bradley reported that Ibarra listed the Covenant House in New York as his “sponsor address” before being released in El Paso. It is unknown if Ibarra was one of the migrants transported by El Paso to New York City.
DHS sources told Bradley that Ibarra was arrested in September 2023 in Queens, New York, for injury to a child under the age of 17. The sanctuary city of New York released the Venezuelan migrant who subsequently traveled to Georgia, where he was finally arrested after the alleged murder of Laken Riley this week.
The sanctuary city policies of New York City prevent law enforcement from cooperating with ICE ERO officers in obtaining or enforcing an immigration detainer, which would have held Ibarra indefinitely in a federal detention facility pending his trial in a New York court.
A fellow student reported Laken Riley missing on Thursday after she went out for a jog near the UGA intramural fields, Breitbart News reported on Friday. UGA police announced they found the nursing student’s body the following day in a forested area near Lake Herrick. Police reported Riley had visible injuries, and they suspected foul play in her death.
Later on Friday, ICE ERO officers found and arrested Ibarra, who was subsequently booked into the Clarke County jail, the ERO source told Breitbart.
Clarke County jail records obtained by Breitbart Texas reveal Ibarra listed an address in Athens as his residence. The Venezuelan migrant is being held without bond on two counts of felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a person making an emergency telephone call, concealing the death of another person, and failure to appear for a “fingerprintable charge.”
The ICE official told Breitbart the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office does not cooperate with ICE ERO officers. No immigration detainer appears in the jail records.
