As per Breitbart News, Representative Mark Green (R-TN) claims that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is “stonewalling” information pertaining to Jose Antonio Ibarra, the undocumented immigrant who may have killed Laken Riley.
In a letter to Mayorkas on February 27, Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked for any information surrounding Ibarra, including his release into the country and any internal DHS correspondence about his immigration procedures.
By March 11th, Mayorkas was instructed to provide the necessary information in response.
Green’s office informed Breitbart News that the DHS called the request a “high priority” when they confirmed receiving it on February 27. However, as of March 13, Mayorkas has not responded with information about Ibarra, according to Green’s office.
Green declared, “It is inexcusable that DHS has not complied with this basic request.”
“DHS should find it rather easy to gather and furnish the records and information that we have sought,” he said. “Secretary Mayorkas has stated time and time again that parole is being issued on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the law; if that is the case, DHS should have no issue supplying the documentation proving it in the instance of Jose Ibarra.”
On January 10, 2024, in Washington, DC, Rep. Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee and head of the House Homeland Security Committee, speaks at a hearing. (Bloomberg/Graeme Sloan via Getty Images)
According to Green, Mayorkas has also neglected to inform the House Homeland Security Committee about Riley’s death.
“DHS has not even gotten in touch with the Committee to establish a schedule for responding other than acknowledging receipt of our request,” Green stated. This is the kind of persistent obstructionism we have experienced from the government. DHS needs to be more honest now.
Riley took a jog around the University of Georgia (UGA) campus in Athens, Georgia, on February 22. When she failed to return home, the police started looking for her. Riley’s corpse was discovered later that day, bludgeoned, in a forested area close to Lake Herrick.
The next day, 26-year-old Venezuelan Ibarra was taken into custody and accused of robbing Riley of her life. Ibarra entered the country in September 2022, close to El Paso, Texas, along the border between the United States and Mexico, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities.
Ibarra was taken into custody in New York City more than six months before Riley’s death on suspicion of hurting a child and breaking traffic laws. Ibarra was not turned over to ICE officers; instead, he was freed from jail according to the city’s sanctuary status.
Afterwards, Ibarra received a shoplifting ticket in Athens in October 2023, but ICE authorities did not take him into custody. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he neglected to show up in court to face the allegations.
Ibarra is still being held without bond at the Clark County Jail.