Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that it is Jose Ibarra who is charged with failure to appear for a fingerprintable offense.
(NewsNation) — The brother of Jose Ibarra, the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, was arrested several times last year by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to NewsNation Thursday.
ICE detainers against Diego Ibarra, 29, were not honored by Athens-Clarke County, ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams said in a statement.
Diego Ibarra encountered U.S. border agents in April of last year near El Paso, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. After being processed for expedited removal he claimed a “credible fear of return to Venezuela,” and was released with a pending claim for asylum.
Since entering the United States, investigators say Diego Ibarra has been arrested three times by Athens, Georgia, law enforcement. His charges included driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license.
NewsNation learned that Diego Ibarra was cited at least twice for shoplifting, once in October 2023 accompanied by his brother, and a second time in December 2023. Jose Ibarra was charged with failure to appear for a fingerprintable offense after not showing up to municipal court to be fingerprinted after the October incident.
Jose Ibarra, 26 faces murder and assault charges in the death of Riley, 22, who was found on a University of Georgia campus running trail Feb. 22.
A friend reported Riley, a student at Augusta University, missing after she didn’t return home from a run earlier in the day.
A Venezuelan citizen, Jose Ibarra unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022, according to immigration authorities. Sources confirmed he came through El Paso, Texas, and was detained before being released, after being in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody for 21 hours.
At least 7.3 million people have fled Venezuela in the past decade during political, economic and humanitarian crises.
Riley’s death and Jose Ibarra’s immigration status have started a debate on border policy between Republicans and Democrats. GOP lawmakers point the blame toward the Biden Administration while Democrats say both parties need to come to the table and and work out an immigration deal.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Riley’s death is “because of the White House’s failures,” to which Biden responded with a statement to social media saying his team had done “a hell of a job” of working with bipartisan lawmakers to fix the system.
However, despite some trying to link crime to an increase in people crossing the border, studies such as one by the National Academy of Sciences using Texas Department of Public Safety data show native-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than people in the country illegally.
Princeton University Professor Douglas Massey said on “NewsNation Now” that while any group of a sufficient size will have some criminals, immigrants do not pose a greater risk.
“Crime is a human thing,” Massey said. “But the rate of crime is actually lower in immigrant neighborhoods because they want to stay here and stay out of trouble.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
