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Mayorkas: Sanctuary Cities Did Not Tell Feds About Laken Riley Accused Killer's Arrests

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 04, 2024 5:00 PM

It turns out that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's terrible take from last week about Laken Riley's murder wasn't a one-time concern when it comes to the Biden administration. While an illegal immigrant has been accused of murdering the 22-year-old nursing student, Jean-Pierre could have been hardly more dismissive during her interview with CNN as she instead focused on blaming Republicans for the crisis at the southern border. During his appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas read from cards to express condolences, and it wasn't until host Margaret Brennan asked him several times that he admitted the sanctuary cities where the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, had been arrested previously, did not inform the federal government.

"A 22 year old nursing student--I know you've been following this--Laken Riley, in the state of Georgia, was murdered allegedly by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant," Brennan pointed out, using a particularly polite way to refer to the illegal immigrant.

"The suspect had been detained by Border Patrol upon crossing, released with temporary permission to stay in the country. He then went on allegedly to commit crimes twice, once in New York for driving a scooter without a license, and once in connection with a shoplifting case in Georgia," she continued before going on to ask: "Did those states and their law enforcement communicate to the federal government that this had happened? Should this man have been deported?"

Mayorkas repeatedly looked down at his notes as he shared that Riley's death was "an absolute tragedy," adding that "our hearts break for and our prayers are with the family, number one." He also said that "one individual is responsible for the murder, and that is the murderer," in case there's any doubt that he's willing to assign blame to the administration or sanctuary cities. As part of his inadequate response, Mayorkas also offered that "we work very closely with state and local law enforcement to ensure that individuals who pose a threat to public safety are indeed our highest priority for detention and removal."

In this case, though, the federal government did not work "very closely" with the local law enforcement, given that Ibarra had committed his alleged crimes in sanctuary cities.

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Brennan went on to ask, "Are you saying there that the federal government had been informed about this individual and the alleged crimes he had committed in those states? Because he could have been deported if that was the case," which brought him back to her initial question. "Was there a breakdown in the system?"

As he got closer, sort of, to answering the question, Mayorkas had a rather polite way of explaining how sanctuary cities operate. "There are a number of cities around the country that have varying degrees of cooperation with the immigration authorities," he explained it.

While Brennan looked to cut in to confirm that New York did not, Mayorkas claimed that "we firmly believe that if a city is aware of an individual who poses a threat to public safety, then we would request that they provide us with that information so that we can ensure that that individual is detained if the facts so warrant."

Brennan again pointed out, "It sounds like they were not coordinating," to which Mayorkas offered that "different cities have different levels of cooperation" before he finally acknowledged "we were not notified in this instance."

Mayorkas' response, once he finally got around to admitting that sanctuary cities do not cooperate with the federal government, serves as a tragic reminder of how complicit these cities are and how preventable such crimes committed by illegal immigrants really are.

While New York City is no doubt a sanctuary city, also at play here is Athens, where Ibarra was arrested for shoplifting and where Riley was also murdered. As Spencer covered at the time last week, Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz held a press conference where he was shouted down by angry residents, especially as he tried to downplay and even dismiss the role the sanctuary city played.

His remarks last Wednesday were also curiously similar to Mayorkas' response on Sunday, which is that "responsibility for this crime rests solely upon the perpetrator."