Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., drilled a migrant rights activist in a heated moment during a Senate hearing on “Stay in Mexico” policy. on Thursday to downplay what he said the murder of Laken Riley and because of the statement that migrant crime is “not a real problem”.
“In March 2024, you wrote, ‘The murder of a nursing student in Georgia has many people on the right talking about migrant crime as if it were a real issue,'” he said. Hawley.
Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University who was found dead on the University of Georgia campus in February. Jose IbarraThe 26-year-old illegal immigrant was found guilty of a total of 10 counts, including aggravated murder. He initially pleaded not guilty, but was eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in November.
“Here’s Laken Riley,” Hawley said as her picture was placed behind him. “Her murder, her horrific murder by this illegal migrant who was also illegally paroled in the United States. [Is] isn’t her death the real problem?”
LAKEN RILEY ACT DEFEAT SENATE FILIBUSTER AS DEMS LEND A HELPING HAND TO GOP
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions a Democratic expert on his statements about the Laken Riley killing during a hearing on the “Remain in Mexico” policy before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington, DC, on Thursday. (live broadcast of the Senate Homeland Security and State Affairs)
Activist Adam Isacson, who works as director of defense oversight at Washington’s Latin America office, responded by saying, “Of course it’s a problem, it’s a tragedy.”
“I didn’t say Laken Riley’s death wasn’t a real issue, I said migrant crime wasn’t a real issue,” Isacson said. “Migrant crime is a much smaller problem than crime committed by American citizens.”
To which Hawley replied, “[Riley] is dead because of migrant crime.”
Hawley also pointed to the case of a 12-year-old Travis Wolfe from the St. Louis who died in a traffic accident involving an illegal immigrant.
“I happen to think their violent murders are the real problem,” he said. “And the fact that you would say otherwise, sit here and advise the Senate that Laken Riley Act is a bad idea, that the whole thing isn’t a real problem, it’s all just, what, made up? I think [it] is unheard of. I think that’s absolutely outrageous.”
The GOP’s Laken Riley Act defeated a filibuster with the help of some Democrats. (Reuters)
Isacson, who said a Democratic member invited him to testify at the hearing Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairssaid the bipartisan Laken Riley bill, which has already passed the House and would require ICE to arrest and detain illegal immigrants who have committed a crime, “could do a lot of damage” and “would allow me to say, ‘oh, this the person stole from the store.’ And that would be sufficient probable cause for someone to be deported.”
Hawley countered: “I want the record to be clear on that, that migrant crime is a real problem.”
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“I think Laken Riley’s bill is absolutely necessary,” he said. “In fact, I’m proposing an amendment to the Laken Riley Act that would cover people like Travis Wolfe. I think ICE should detain, should be required to detain those illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes against children like Travis Wolfe.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital after the hearing, another of the experts who testified, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, said Hawley “expressed the frustration that many Americans feel about migrant crimes in to the United States.”
FOX NEWS POLL: MOST SUPPORT MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN BORDER SECURITY AS THIS ISSUE GROWS IN IMPORTANCE
Migrants on the southern border meet in Arizona. (US Border Patrol)
“We have seen many not only high-profile but shocking crimes committed in the United States by migrants who have been stopped at the border and then released into the United States,” he said. “It’s called Department of Homeland Security with reason; the purpose of this section is to ensure that citizens of the United States and aliens who are here lawfully are protected from criminal predation. Unfortunately, on this at the border, the Biden-Harris administration dropped the ball.”
“Individuals who are criminals, who by law should not be allowed to enter the United States in the first place, have effectively been allowed into this country and are now free to attack both migrant and civilian communities in this country,” Arthur added. “So, job one for Tom Homan — Donald Trump’s border czar — and the president himself will round up, detain and remove all criminal aliens, all individuals who attack both migrant and civil communities in this country.”
Despite the theatrics, Arthur said it was a “good hearing” because there was “a lot of bipartisan agreement on the need to secure the border.”
In this August 2019 file photo, migrants — many of whom were sent back to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Stay in Mexico” policy — wait in line to get a meal at a camp near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. (AP)
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“Customs and Border Protection cited Remain in Mexico as necessary for border security the first time it was used under the Trump administration,” he said. “I think when you look at the amount of money that’s gone into the pockets of the cartels in the last four years, you know, as we’ve seen, 8 million, 10 million people come into the United States illegally, and you contrast that in relation to the number of people who are sent back to Mexico, I think the balance is definitely in favor of border enforcement and potential re-enforcement of Remain in Mexico.
“As long as migrants continue to come to the United States in large numbers, the cartels are going to get richer, they’re just going to expand their capabilities, and they’re just going to send more drugs into the United States.”
