(NewsNation) — Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee are requesting more information from the Department of Homeland Security as they start an investigation into Jose Ibarra, the suspect accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

NewsNation obtained a letter Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., sent to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about concerns they had after learning Ibarra was not in the country legally.

Ibarra, 26, faces multiple murder and assault charges after Riley’s body was found Thursday on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Riley, a former UGA student who was attending Augusta University at the time of her death, had been reported missing by a friend at 12:07 p.m. after failing to return home from a run. Authorities have not revealed how Riley was killed but said her death was caused by blunt force trauma.

A Venezuelan citizen, 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, and that he was only in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody for 21 hours.

Jordan and McClintock’s letter notes Ibarra’s arrest Friday in connection to Riley’s death was not his first — in August, he was arrested and charged with “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”

“The Biden Administration’s border and immigration policies only increase the likelihood that criminal aliens will successfully enter and remain in the U.S.,” the letter to DHS said. “Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to conduct oversight of federal immigration policy and procedures.”

Jordan and McClintock wrote in the letter they want information on: Ibarra’s immigration case history; the time, date and place of all his entries into the United States; Ibarra’s processing by CBP; and whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer against him.

The lawmakers gave DHS a deadline of 5 p.m. March 12 to provide the information.

Capitol Hill sources told NewsNation that it isn’t all that unusual for the Judiciary Committee to request personal case information, as the group is tasked with conducting oversight of federal immigration policy and procedures. However, the sources noted that what makes this instance different is that it concerns a high-profile case that has become politically charged.

While Republicans are pointing the blame at the Biden administration, Democrats are saying this is the reason both parties need to come to the table and work out an immigration deal.

During a news conference Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Riley’s death is “because of the White House’s failures.”

“It is an understatement to say that this is a major crisis,” Kemp said.

While White House officials expressed condolences to Riley’s family, they referred questions about the case to ICE and local law enforcement, the Associated Press reported.

After Kemp’s conference, President Joe Biden posted a statement to social media saying his team had done “a hell of a job” of working with bipartisan lawmakers to fix the immigration system.

“Together, we put forward some of the most fair reforms ever,” Biden said.

Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, on Monday repeated his pledge to deport migrants if re-elected, saying on social media that “Biden’s Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens!”

Other Democrats, however, said Trump and other Republicans are the reason for the “crisis,” with Georgia Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler saying the GOP is the reason a bill in Congress that would have toughened immigration enforcement recently failed.

Another Democratic state senator, Nabilah Islam Parkes, called the characterization of migrants as “criminals and thugs” xenophobic. Many studies cited by the AP, such as one published by the National Academy of Sciences based on Texas Department of Public Safety data, state that native-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than people in the country illegally.

“As Georgia mourns the life of Laken Riley, we must not succumb to tribalism and bigotry,” Islam Parkes said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.