Ex-Trump Aide Points Finger at Former President for Laken Riley's Death

A former Donald Trump aide is blaming the former president for the death of Augusta University College of Nursing student Laken Riley, citing the Deferred Enforced Departure program (DED).

Riley, 22, was discovered on Thursday in a wooded area in Athens. The following evening, police announced that Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant, had been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey Clark said Ibarra was not a U.S. citizen, adding: "Right now, I don't know his full status."

Citing multiple Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources, NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Ibarra crossed into the U.S. illegally in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022. He was "released due to lack of detention space," but the claim has not been officially confirmed.

In a Saturday post on X, A.J. Delgado, a former Trump 2016 campaign aide, shared how based off the reported timing of when Ibarra crossed into the U.S., the blame is to be put on Trump.

"You're going to see a lot of #MAGA folks on here, who are claiming that #Biden has "blood on his hands" due to the suspect in the Atlanta-nursing-student's murder being an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who reportedly arrived in 2022. Except... #whoops: It seems *TRUMP* is the one to blame, if anyone is other than, you know, the murderer," Delgado wrote.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.

Delgado continued by sharing in a series of posts on X that the DED program, which Trump signed in January 2021 and offers temporary legal status to Venezuelans fleeing the humanitarian crisis brought on by Nicolás Maduro's regime, made it "enticing" for Venezuelans to make their way to the U.S.

"You see, on his way out the door in January 2021, one of the last things Trump did was carve out a special category for Venezuelans, same as Cubans...The point is, it was TRUMP who signed an order basically making it HUGELY enticing for Venezuelans to make their way to America [often via the southern border]. A year later, this guy came in," Delgado added.

According to the White House, under the program, the U.S. deferred for 18 months the removal of certain Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. It also allowed the Venezuelans to work during that time.

"The deteriorative condition within Venezuela, which presents an ongoing national security threat to the safety and well-being of the American people, warrants the deferral of the removal of Venezuelan nationals who are present in the United States," Trump said in a memo released on January 19, 2021.

Delgado's comments came after a host of Republicans blamed President Joe Biden, who continues to face bipartisan criticism over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border as the country continues to experience a high number of migrant border crossings.

There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Republicans say the uptick in migrants is a direct result of Biden's border policies, which they argue incentivize illegal immigration. Other experts have said factors including political and financial instability in some Central American countries drive migration to the U.S.

Georgia Representative Mike Collins, a Republican, posted on X that Biden and Homeland Security Security Alejandro Mayorkas were responsible for Riley's death. He also blamed Athens' sanctuary city status.

"The blood of Laken Riley is on the hands of Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the government of Athens-Clarke County," Collins wrote. "The Venezuelan suspect in Laken Riley's murder is one of millions of illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions. This man had no business being in America, much less the UGA community to brutally murder this young American while she was on a run."

Georgia state Senator Jason Esteves, a Democrat, countered with a post on X that stated: "Laken Riley's family deserves space to grieve without being used for cheap political points. Those who bring up border security should take that up with [Donald] Trump, who recently whipped Republicans in DC into shelving a bipartisan border security bill."