Editor’s note: Raul A. Reyes He is an attorney and a member of the USA Today Contributors Board. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.view more opinions On CNN.
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A vigil was held Monday at the University of Georgia (UGA) for Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was found dead after jogging on campus on Thursday. She died from blunt force trauma to her head, according to the local coroner.
The suspect in her murder is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, sparking a new controversy over illegal immigration. Republicans in Congress have called for a crackdown on immigration, and former President Donald Trump has denounced the suspects as “monsters.”
Riley’s death is a tragic loss for her family and the community. But linking her murder to the immigrant crime wave is misguided. What is at risk of being lost in this debate are the fundamental tenets of American justice. Riley’s alleged killer does not represent immigrants, and it remains to be seen whether he is guilty. Narratives that typically portray undocumented immigrants as violent criminals are harmful and inaccurate.
Riley’s murder suspect, Jose Antonio Ybarra, is just a suspect for now. Although he faces charges of felony murder, false imprisonment, and other charges, he is still entitled to the presumption of innocence. This is the foundation of our nation’s criminal justice system. Under our Constitution, Ybarra has the same right to due process as anyone else in the United States.
The Supreme Court specifically extended such protections to illegal aliens under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Rushing to judgment regarding brambles violates these principles.
Initial reports about Ybarra revealed that he was arrested in 2022 after illegally entering the United States and later released. He was later arrested by the New York City Police Department, charged with “injury to a child under 17 years of age and motor vehicle license violation,” and released again, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, these facts, combined with the circumstances of Riley’s murder, do not mean that Ybarra should become a representative of illegal immigrants.
Study after study has found no conclusive link between immigration and crime. In 2023, researchers at Stanford University discovered that such a relationship is a “myth” and not supported by 140 years of data.
A 2020 Princeton University study found that undocumented immigrants in Texas tend to have fewer felony arrests than legal residents. New York City has seen 170,000 illegal immigrants arrive since Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing them in April 2022, but has not seen a spike in crime during this period. Ta.
Moreover, there are an estimated 10.5 million illegal aliens in the United States, and it would be short-sighted to focus only on the worst elements of them. The illegal aliens include Wall Street executives, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, military veterans, and Harvard graduates.
Undocumented immigrants have worked on the front lines during the pandemic, with some helping to rescue children from kidnappers. Reducing all illegal immigrants to the stereotype of violent murderers ignores the true contributions they make to this country.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem epitomizes the conservative response to Riley’s murder. In the post of Xpreviously tweeted, “Countries like Venezuela are emptying their prisons to send dangerous criminals to America…The tragic murders in Georgia show that Biden’s border policies will deprive children. “It proves that they are putting themselves at risk.”
Sadly, many Americans believe this type of inflammatory rhetoric. A Pew Research survey this month found that 57% of Americans believe that large numbers of people trying to enter the country will lead to an increase in crime, despite evidence to the contrary.
This distorted narrative is dangerous. Consider that UGA’s Latino student body has already said it has received “hateful comments” even though it had nothing to do with Riley’s murder and the suspect was not a student. Or how New York City’s Guardian Angels, a vigilante group, recently assaulted a man on Fox News. The man was mistakenly identified as an “immigrant” and is a New Yorker from the Bronx.
Even the highly publicized altercation between New York City police and seven immigrants in Times Square turned out to be less clear-cut than initially thought. The New York Times reports that police “began an encounter.”
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Those found guilty of Riley’s murder deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Until then, it is the height of irony for Republicans to use her death to score political points.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said in a social media post on Saturday. President Joe Biden said there was a need to “close the border” in light of Riley’s death. But in early February, Congressional Republicans blocked a bipartisan immigration deal that would have given the president the power to do so under certain circumstances.
If the suspects are found guilty, the anger surrounding the Riley case should be directed at the lawmakers who have repeatedly failed to overhaul our immigration system, allowing dangerous individuals to be released on parole, and creating a dysfunctional status quo. be.
There are no partisan “allies” in the horrific case of murdering a beloved innocent young man. Laken Riley deserves justice – not used as a symbol of xenophobia and hatred.