Bill Clinton criticizes border security at Kamala Harris event

Bill Clinton said the killing of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was allegedly brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela in February, could have been prevented if the killer had been “properly vetted.”

The former president spoke to voters in Georgia on Sunday on behalf of Kamala Harris as part of a campaign shakeup in the battleground Southern states. In remarks to attendees of a fish fry, Clinton made a broader conclusion, linking Riley's killing to the bipartisan border bill that was “killed” by Donald Trump this year. He suggested that such a bill would have provided more funding for border security, which could have stopped the young woman's killer, who entered the country in 2022.

A snippet of Clinton's remarks, shared without the context of the bill, was used by Trump's social media operation as evidence that not even a Harris campaign replacement could defend the Biden administration's border policies.

“(Harris is) the only candidate who has actually supported a bill that would limit immigration to a certain point in a given year,” Clinton said. “Trump killed the bill.”

As illegal migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have increased and then declined in recent years, immigration and border security remain a top issue for voters.

“Kamala Harris claimed the border was 'secure' just days after Laken Riley's illegal immigrant killer Jose Ibarra crossed the country,” Trump's campaign wrote in a press release on Monday.

“President Trump will secure the border and stop catch and release. That’s why he just got support from the Border Patrol Union.”

Trump and other Republicans have attacked the Biden administration for releasing the suspect in the Riley killing on parole after his initial incarceration.

Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University in Georgia, was murdered while running away in February. The suspect, José Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was granted parole into the United States “due to detention capacity at the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas,” DHS previously said, according to a news release from the Judiciary Committee Senate confirmed April.

The case has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.

“The man who killed Laken Riley in Georgia was released on parole by the Biden-Harris administration because they had no capacity at the border to hold him,” Sen. Linsey Graham (South Carolina-R) said in September CNN. “That’s not a reason to release people on parole.”

He continued: “I promise you: women have been raped and murdered. People have been hurt by illegal immigrants who were released into this country without detention. It's a nightmare. It’s crazy.”

Throughout his campaign, Trump has vowed to implement a mass deportation plan if re-elected. Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller promised a “100 percent” deportation rate at the border by reinstating policies such as “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42 restrictions that were used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump said at a news conference in Los Angeles that work would begin in Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, and reiterated claims of a Venezuelan gang takeover in Aurora as well as unsubstantiated allegations that Haitian migrants in Springfield were eating residents' pets.

On Friday, Trump shared his mass deportation plans at a rally in Aurora. As part of Operation Aurora, Trump said he would seek the death penalty for any undocumented migrant who killed an American citizen or law enforcement officer.

“I make this promise to you and I vow that November 5, 2024 will be the day of liberation in America,” Trump told his supporters. “I will save Aurora and every city that has been invaded and conquered.”

Harris faced questions about immigration during her media campaign last week, including during her interview with 60 minutes.

Asked whether she regretted the Biden administration's early decision to ease immigration policies, Harris defended the administration's approach.

“It is a long-standing problem and solutions exist. From day one, we have literally offered solutions,” she said.