News/Commentary

Dem Rep Katie Porter eviscerated for cold-hearted, but telling, response to Laken Riley’s murder

February 27, 2024 | | Print Article

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter thinks the nation’s immigration laws should not be determined by “one instance” of murder by a migrant.

The California Democrat sparked outrage when she told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the “horrible” murder of a nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus should not “shape” the “overall immigration policy” of America.

Porter, who is running in the March 5 primary election to represent California in the U.S. Senate, was blasted for the “absolutely disgusting” comments on social media after she appeared on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” Monday and seemed to downplay the importance of the fact that the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a migrant from Venezuela who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022.

Porter’s comments came after a rundown of Ibarra’s status and record by Burnett.

“Well, I think when a horrible tragedy like this happens, I think whenever we‘re dealing with violent crime, there is a sense of outrage, of sadness, and of loss,” Porter, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said.

“But I think the important thing to focus on is any one instance shouldn‘t shape our overall immigration policy, which has so many different facets, including economic choices about what workers to allow in and how to create prosperity in America,” she added.

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“So the situation is tragic and it‘s a loss and it‘s important to acknowledge that, but also to recognize all the other, how all the other parts of immigration policy fit together,” Porter said.

In discussing the rise in illegal border crossings and the Biden administration’s policies coming under intense criticism, Porter claimed closing off the southern U.S. border would not solve the problem.

“I think we‘ve seen under Title 42 and some other policies that efforts to simply quote, close the border is not really solving the longer-term problem, which is that we have not put the resources or the policies at the border so we have all different kinds of chaos and challenges from not having enough immigration judges to not investing in technology that can help a screen for fentanyl, which I voted for, but we need to do more on recognizing that we haven‘t kept our promise to Dreamers,” Porter later asserted. “All of these things come together to create the kinds of chaotic immigration policies we see.”

The Democrat’s resistance to the need for policy changes in the wake of Riley’s murder set off a furious response on social media.

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Frieda Powers
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