Former President Donald Trump, at the Republican National Convention (RNC), highlighted the plight of Angel families and their loved ones who were allegedly killed at the hands of illegal immigrants under President Joe Biden’s administration.
“This is my pledge: I will not let these murderers and criminals into our country,” Trump said.
Trump mentioned three specific cases: the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley of Athens, Georgia, the murder of 37-year-old Rachel Morin of Bel Air, Maryland, and the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nangaray of Houston, Texas.
On February 22, Laken Riley was murdered while jogging around the campus of the University of Georgia (UGA) by allegedly Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Ibarra crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, on September 8, 2022. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials cited a lack of “detention capacity” as the reason Ibarra was paroled and released to U.S. soil through Biden’s parole pipeline.
But at the time of Ybarra’s arrest at the border, the Department of Homeland Security had more than 8,000 detention beds available.
On July 19, 2023, Ibarra appeared before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in New York City, scheduled a biometric appointment, and was fingerprinted. The fingerprinting revealed that Ibarra had a criminal history. On September 14, 2023, Ibarra was arrested for engaging in conduct likely to be injurious to a child. Despite the charges, Ibarra was not charged and his arrest record was expunged.
Two months later, in November 2023, Ibarra applied for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). On December 9, 2023, Ibarra’s work authorization application was approved.
Meanwhile, on August 5, 2023, Rachel Morin was allegedly raped and bludgeoned to death while out walking by 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador with ties to the MS-13 gang.
In 2023, Martinez Hernandez was arrested three times by Border Patrol agents while attempting to cross the southern border after he was accused of killing a woman in his native El Salvador. On his fourth attempt to enter the U.S., Martinez Hernandez was successful, becoming one of nearly 2 million “fugitives” who have crossed the border undetected by Border Patrol since President Biden took office.
On June 17th, Jocelyn Nangaray was allegedly lured to a bridge in Houston by illegal immigrants Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, who murdered her, tied her hands and feet, and left her body in a nearby creek.
Martinez Rangel was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, on March 14. He was served a Notice to Appear (NTA) before a federal immigration judge that same day and released on bail to the U.S. mainland.
Peña was arrested at the border near El Paso on May 28, just under a month before Jocelyn was killed. That same day, he was released on U.S. soil on an NTA bail order and appeared before a federal immigration judge.
Federal data shows that the Department of Homeland Security had space to hold the men when they were released into the U.S., but decided not to, an investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee found.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
