Suspect in Killing at U. of Georgia Is Denied Bond as a Shaken Campus Mourns
A 26-year-old man charged with kidnapping and murdering a nursing student at the University of Georgia in Athens will remain in jail after he was denied bond at a hearing on Saturday, the authorities said.
The suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, lived in an apartment complex about one mile from a wooded trail where the body of Laken Riley, 22, was found on Thursday afternoon, said Jeffrey Clark, the chief of university police. Ms. Riley, a student at nearby Augusta University and a former student at the University of Georgia, had been reported missing by friends after she did not return from a run.
Mr. Ibarra, a resident of Athens who is not a U.S. citizen, migrated to the United States from Venezuela, the authorities said. He was arrested by the Border Patrol for crossing the border illegally in September 2022 and was released quickly with temporary permission to stay in the country, a federal law enforcement official said Saturday. That release, or parole, was a practice the administration used when officials were overwhelmed with high numbers of crossings. The administration ended that practice about six months later.
It was typical for many Venezuelans to be released with permission to stay temporarily because they could not be repatriated back to their country due to strained diplomatic relations. Some six million Venezuelans have fled their troubled country, the largest population displacement in Latin America’s modern history.
On Saturday, it was not clear what Mr. Ibarra’s immigration status was.
Many conservative politicians, including Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, on Saturday linked the killing to the immigration policies of President Biden, which they contend have overwhelmed the country with more migrants than the system can handle. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, urged the president to close the border.
“House Republicans will continue to fight tooth and nail for a return to law and order,” Mr. Johnson said in a post on X.
