On February 22nd, 2024, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student was murdered while she was jogging at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens Georgia.  

Laken had sustained significant blunt-force trauma to her head as well as evidence of asphyxiation. 

 The UGA police attested and identified José Antonio Ibarra as a 26-year-old Venezuelan man. Ibarra had previously been arrested in September of 2022 after unlawfully entering the U.S. near El Paso, Texas. He was charged with 10 counts including felony murder, malice murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with intent to rape, and kidnapping. He was found guilty on all counts and given life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Riley’s death gained mass media coverage sparking a conversation about illegal immigrants in the United States causing the House of Representatives to make the Laken Riley Act. This bill would require federal detention of illegal immigrants arrested for burglary or theft.

After failing to come to a vote the first time the bill went in to vote for a second time passing with bipartisan support. The bill passed the Senate on January 20 as a part of the 119th Congress. This is the first bill signed into law by Donald Trump in his second presidential term.