The Democrat mayor of the town where 22-year-old University of Georgia (UGA) student Laken Riley was killed by an illegal immigrant is attempting to fight his local recall effort.
Athens, Georgia Mayor Kelly Girtz filed a petition with the county’s superior court this week requesting the suspension of the recall effort. He claimed that the effort has been mishandled by county elections officials and the court must review it.
The Democrat’s filing included a request for the court to examine the sufficiency, or lack thereof, of the grounds stated for the recall effort.
Girtz also asked that the court review “the facts, if any, upon which the grounds in the Application (for recall) are based.”
The Democrat mayor made clear that he did not taxpayer funds to hire private counsel for his petition. Organizers of the effort reached the required amount of signatures to move forward with the recall effort also including Sheriff John Williams and Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez.
Following Riley’s gruesome death at the hands of the Biden Administration’s open-border policies, Girtz defended his sanctuary city’s policies in private emails where even the most violent illegal immigrants who commit crimes are not turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I support the detainer policy as one that is both humane and following the well-documented propensity of immigrants in the U.S. to be less criminally inclined than the native-born population,” the mayor wrote in an email.
In the email, Girtz argued that a person should be held destined simply because they are an undocumented alien.
The American Immigration Council noted that cities such as Athens neglect its responsibility to honor ICE detainers which requires state and local law enforcement to notify the agency before illegal immigrants are released from state custody so that ICE can transfer them to federal authorities for potential deportation.
Riley’s murder caused a flurry of drama, drawing even more attention to President Joe Biden’s reckless open border crisis.
Riley’s mother spoke out against Biden’s border policies, blaming the president for her daughter’s death.
“Biden does not even KNOW my child’s name – it’s pathetic! If you are going to say her name (even when forced to do so) at least say the right name!” She said.
Riley’s mother accused Biden of trying to “minimize” her daughter’s murder by comparing his son Beau Biden’s death from cancer.
