Rand Paul claims Democratic senators show ‘no concern’ for Laken Riley Act – Washington Examiner

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suggested that the Laken Riley Act would not pass in the Senate as the Democratic senators haven’t shown any “concern” for the matter.

Paul appeared on The Story with Martha MacCallum on Thursday to share his prediction of whether or not the House bill in honor of Laken Riley, an Augusta University nursing student who was allegedly murdered by Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, will pass in the Senate after it passed in the House. This legislation would require immigration officials to detain immigrants charged with crimes.

“I think it will get unanimous Republican support, but we’re one short — one vote short. I think the Democrats will be either unanimous or nearly unanimously against this,” Paul said. “They have voted in the past that they don’t care. We talked about deporting people or keeping people in jail and there has been no concern on the other side about trying to tackle people with criminal records or people who have actively engaged in crime.”

Ibarra was living near the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia, where Riley was jogging at the time of her abduction and murder. He has since been arrested in connection to her death. Ibarra was previously arrested in the United States, and authorities knew he was an illegal immigrant but released him back into the country rather than deport him.

In the House, the legislation passed with a vote of 251 to 170, with 37 Democratic representatives voting for the measure and the rest voting against it.

“They care more about spending money we don’t have,” Paul said of the Democratic senators. “They are more concerned with shoveling the money out the door than they are with the death of this young woman and trying to prevent this from happening to other people. It’s a disgrace. It is an utter disgrace.”

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Georgia passed its own House Bill 1105, which allows local authorities to detain immigrants for deportation should they find they are not legal residents. Should any office not report the legal status of an immigrant in its custody, they could “be subject to the withholding of state funding or state administered federal funding,” per the bill. The legislation was drafted by six Republicans and passed 97-74. Only one Democratic member voted for the measure.

Riley’s father, Jason Riley, blamed the city of Athens’s sanctuary status for the murder of his daughter. On Wednesday, he spoke to the state Senate to encourage the lawmakers to revise the status.

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