Arrest of migrants in Georgia massacre turns city into latest immigration battleground
When a 22-year-old nursing student was found dead on a wooded path at the University of Georgia, in what is believed to be the first homicide on campus in nearly three decades, it sent waves of grief and fear that roiled the university. core.
But when a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela was charged Friday with the kidnapping and murder of college student Laken Riley, it did something different: It transformed Athens and Clarke County, a community of about 130,000 people about 70 miles east of Atlanta . into the latest flashpoint in the political battle over US immigration policy.
In a social media post on Monday, former President Donald J. Trump called the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, a “monster” and accused President Biden of an “invasion” that is “killing our citizens.” Earlier in the day, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp denounced “this White House’s unwillingness to secure the southern border” at an event at the university.
A third Republican, Rep. Mike Collins, who represents Athens, wrote on social media: “The blood of Laken Riley is in the hands of Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas and the Athens-Clarke County government,” referring to the unified city-county. government.
Such statements have struck many liberals as demagogic rhetoric on top of a heinous crime. In an interview Sunday, Athens-Clarke County Democratic Mayor Kelly Girtz said the conversation should focus on mourning the victim and blaming an individual rather than a group.
“This murder was a violent, heinous act,” he said, “and rests squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrator.”
Athens’ relatively liberal culture, local immigration policies and border crisis have combined with a brutal crime to create a toxic brew at Georgia’s flagship university, where student politics run the gamut.
In recent years, the city of Athens has seen a rise in local left-wing politicians, including Mr. Girtz, who have placed a new focus on issues of social justice and righting what they see as ongoing wrongs in the Deep South. They have not been shy about their embrace of undocumented immigrants and a Hispanic community whose numbers have increased dramatically in and around Athens over the past three decades.
At the same time, Athens remains something of a sacred space for conservatives in Georgia. The massive university, located in the middle of the city, has educated many of Georgia’s most powerful Republicans, including Governor Kemp, a native of Athens. And the school’s winning football team, as well as the tailgating and admiration it engenders, are core Georgia traditions that Mr. Kemp and others remarkable woven into a conservative tapestry of culture and policy.
Mr. Kemp, a former homebuilder and developer in Athens, won his first gubernatorial race in 2018 with a bold ad in which he declared: “I have a big truck, just in case I need to catch illegal criminals and bring them home. myself.” This month, he promised to send Georgia National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico.
Mr. Kemp’s comments on Monday echoed a letter he sent to the White House on Friday in which he cited statistics on illegal border crossings and drug seizures at the southern border.
Mr. Girtz. was first elected in 2006 to the committee that governs the unified city-county government. He said that the more activist group of politicians and their supporters in Athens emerged to some extent from the new wave and post-punk music scene that famously emerged in Athens in the early 1980s and gave the world REM and the B-52s.
“People who were attracted to the magnetic creative energy of Athens grew into political thinkers,” Mr. Girtz said, “and much of that political thinking is left of center.”
In addition to addressing issues of race and class that had long divided many of Athens’ black and white residents, the new liberal lawmakers took a defiantly anti-Trump stance toward undocumented immigrants, many of whom are sent to Athens came to work in poultry farms or arrived during World War II. the construction boom of the early 2000s.
In 2018, then-local sheriff Ira Edwards, under pressure from Mr. Girtz and others, ended the practice of holding arrested immigrants in jail for 48 hours to give federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials a chance to detain them to fetch. for possible deportation.
The following year, Mr. Girtz and the committee passed a resolution denouncing white supremacy and declaring that undocumented immigrants should “feel welcome and comfortable” in dealing with the government.
And in 2020, voters elected a liberal district attorney, Deborah Gonzalez, who promised that “consider collateral consequences for undocumented defendants” when making charging decisions.
The Conservatives were shocked by all this – and remain so.
On Monday, State Representative Houston Gaines, a Republican from Athens, noted that Mr. Ibarra, the suspect in the University of Georgia murder, had been issued a criminal summons for shoplifting at an Athens Walmart in October, according to court records. Records show a court order was issued, meaning he most likely skipped a court date.
There is “an atmosphere where Athens is a place that welcomes people who, quite frankly, should not live in the United States,” Mr. Gaines said.
Mr. Ibarra was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in September 2022 for crossing the border illegally and was quickly released with temporary permission to remain in the country, authorities said.
That release, or parole, was a practice the Biden administration adopted when officials were overwhelmed by large numbers of people crossing. About six months later, that practice ended.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mr. Ibarra was arrested in New York City in August on charges of child endangerment and violating driver’s license laws. He eventually moved to Athens and lived in an apartment within walking distance of the crime scene.
In 2022, the Republican-led state legislature took what Democrats said was an act of retaliation, redrawing Athens’ districts to rid the commission of three of its most liberal members. Ms. Gonzalez, the district attorney, was a key push last year for state lawmakers to create a commission with the power to fire prosecutors. (That committee is currently in operational limbo.)
Mr. Gaines said this week that he and other Republicans would try to push through bills in the coming days to tighten policies around undocumented immigrants.
For Mr. Girtz, the public policy debate is only part of the story. On Sunday morning, in a coffee shop near campus, the mayor, wearing an olive-colored military jacket and cap, dismissed the idea that he was responsible for the killing. He said Rep. Collins, who accused him of having blood on his hands, was harboring “some kind of cartoon story about how the universe works.”
Mr. Girtz spoke of the deep sense of shock and grief over Ms. Riley’s death. He also mentioned the Athens of 1964 murder of a black World War II veteran, Lemuel Penn, at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan.
Asked whether the conservative rhetoric sparked by the death of a young white woman could fuel retaliatory violence against immigrants in the city, Mr. Girtz said: “We live in a time when sometimes ugly and simplistic rhetoric fuels other terrible actions, so yes.”
The undocumented population in Athens lives with a mix of fear and frustration. “The really guilty ones are the Republicans and the federal government,” said an auto mechanic named Noe, who declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation, “because every time there’s an election they treat us like a costal de boxeo — a punching ball.”
He added: “They beat us and treated us as if we were guilty of every bad act.”
At a trailer park north of the city, Jose Tapía, 50, a construction worker from Mexico and a legal U.S. resident, said he expected things would get harder for his undocumented neighbors. “I think there will be more tension,” he said. “I’m sure the police will be stricter.”
On Monday afternoon, hundreds of students gathered in a plaza near the student center for a vigil for Ms. Riley and another student who committed suicide last week. Some observers could be seen from nearby rooftops.
Most seemed focused on grieving and paying respects. A number of students said the politicization of Ms. Riley’s death seemed inappropriate. “It’s kind of gross,” said Maia Semmes, 25, a law student.