WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), joined his colleagues on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) including Ranking Member Rand Paul, M.D. (R-Ky.), and Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), in sending a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting additional information on Jose Antonio Ibarra. Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022, has been charged with the murder of Laken Hope Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University on the campus of the University of Georgia.

The senators’ letter highlights Ibarra’s lengthy criminal history. In 2022, Ibarra was arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) near El Paso, Texas after illegally entering the United States, but was paroled and released. In the months leading up to Laken Hope Riley’s murder, Ibarra had multiple encounters with state and local law enforcement, including charges of reckless endangerment of a child in New York City and a misdemeanor shoplifting citation in Georgia. Despite consistently demonstrating a clear disregard for U.S. law, Ibarra was never taken into Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) custody.

In the letter, the senators question DHS’s ability to effectively secure our homeland following the tragic murder of Laken Hope Riley. The senators requested DHS provide all documents and records related to Ibarra including the Alien file and communications between and among DHS, CBP, ICE, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies regarding Ibarra.

Full text of the letter can be found here.

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