The aftermath of tragedy: UGA student’s killing intensifies xenophobia 

On Feb. 23, Jarissa Navarro, a student at the University of Georgia, received a call from her friend asking where she was and if she was OK. Navarro’s friend informed her that the intramural fields, a small section of campus used for student recreation, had been locked down by the Athens-Clarke County police. Word quickly spread that a death had occurred there, and UGA’s campus became paralyzed with fear and grief. 

“My friend literally saw someone on the side of the road bawling their eyes out,” Navarro said. 

Navarro didn’t know that the body of 22 year-old nursing student Laken Riley had been discovered at the intramural fields by the UGA police department. After Riley failed to return from a run and did not respond to multiple phone calls, her roommate contacted the police. 

Within hours of the discovery, a manhunt was underway for her killer. Less than a day later, a suspect had been arrested and charged. In a press conference, UGA Chief of Police Jeff Clark identified 26 year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, as the primary suspect in Riley’s murder. 

“I immediately had a gut wrenching fear that it was going to turn into a political issue,” Navarro said. 

Her fears were confirmed. Minutes after the press conference finished, GA-10 Representative Mike Collins (R), who’s congressional district covers Athens, tweeted that “Riley’s blood is on the hands of Joe Biden, (Homeland Security Secretary) Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Athens-Clarke County Government.” 

In the months following Riley’s death, students and residents have watched Athens become the newest national frontline in a decades-long debate over illegal immigration. Former President Donald Trump, who is centering much of his current campaign on illegal immigration, portrays Riley as yet another casualty in the “deadly invasion” by migrants he purports America is experiencing. At a rally in Rome, GA, Trump met with Riley’s family backstage before speaking to an audience filled with shirts and signs emblazoned with her face and the adopted slogan “Say Her Name.” President Biden mentioned Riley in the State of the Union address in response to heckling from GA-14 Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R). 

Effects on the immigrant population

As the case garnered more and more attention, the immigrant and Hispanic communities of Athens found themselves at the center of a national uproar. According to NBC News, the Latino Community Fund Georgia received several threats over social media in the days after the killing. Cedar Shoals senior Marcela Estaban has also noticed an uptick in anti-immigrant sentiment on social media. 

“I saw videos of people trying to talk about Laken, but instead of focusing on Laken, a lot of the comments started focusing on the man (Ibarra) and making very dehumanizing comments about immigrants,” Estaban said. 

The shockwaves of xenophobia left in the aftermath of the killing have intruded on the personal lives of many immigrants. Cedar junior Fatima Lopez has felt ostracized and othered by the white people around her. 

“We live in a neighborhood where it’s almost all white people. We were looked at differently after (the killing),” Lopez said. “My mom talked about how she was struggling because she’s always trying to fit in with everyone. It’s hard because everyone sees her as different now.”

Cedar senior Gustavo Carrillo believes the focus on illegal immigration distracts from the actual killing. 

“It’s upsetting because you’re not making it about Laken Riley, you’re making it about your political views and your agenda to get rid of immigrants,” Carillo said.

Georgia State representative Spencer Frye says the response to the killing is what he calls “selective outrage,” or a focus on the crime solely because the killer is an undocumented immigrant. 

“10 days before the horrific killing of that college student there was a 48-year-old Black man in Athens that got shot down in his front yard. Two weeks after the incident at the intramural fields, there was a three year old that got shot in a drive-by shooting. I didn’t hear one single person (in the state house) talk about those two incidents,” Frye said. 

Latino students at UGA, who comprise only 7% of the student population, have voiced concern about racism on campus. In the days after Ibarra was identified as an undocumented immigrant, a number of racist and xenophobic messages, including one that called for the “hunting” of migrants, were posted on the student based social media app YikYak. User anonymity is guaranteed on the app, making it impossible for the university to identify and punish the students responsible for the posts. 

Social media comments are not the only thing stoking fear among immigrants, Latinos and their families and friends. During the month of March, the Athens city government erected several roadblocks meant to catch and detain drunk drivers. Carillo says that the fear of roadblocks, xenophobia, and deportation has caused many people he knows to fear leaving their houses.

“People I’ve talked to are scared to go on day-to-day errands because they think there’s going to be ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) hidden somewhere or roadblocks ready to ID them or they’re going to get hate crimed,” Carillo said. “I feel like I’m going to get a call one day and it’s going to be about someone I know getting deported or detained. Ever since then (the killing) I’ve been a little on my feet about it.”

Fear of deportation and xenophobia has become more pervasive for immigrants who live in Athens, leading some to leave altogether. 

“I live in a neighborhood that is very Hispanic and diverse and there were people who were like, ‘I guess it’s time to move somewhere else,’” Cedar senior Jesus Salinas said.

Legislation 

While the news of the murder was still devastating Athens and reverberating around the country, lawmakers in Atlanta and Washington were moving quickly to draft legislation addressing illegal immigration. On Feb. 29, the Georgia House of Representatives passed House Bill (HB) 1105, a measure they said would “strengthen public safety and security in our state, stand firmly against illegal immigration and for the rule of law.” HB 1105 would require local law enforcement to identify and detain illegal immigrants, as well as cooperate completely with ICE. The bill would also mandate local municipalities to apply for a 287(g) agreement with the federal government. 287(g) agreements require local law enforcement to identify noncitizens who are arrested and report them to ICE. Currently, only six of Georgia’s 159 counties are engaged in these agreements.

Frye, whose district covers much of north Athens, voted “No” on HB 1105. He argued that HB 1105 has the potential to separate families, calling out what he saw as hypocrisy from supporters of the bill.

“(The bill) could remove a parent from their children and make them wards of the state,” Frye said. “I find it very difficult to go along with a group of people who claim to have cornered on the market of family values and talk about family units. It’s not good fiscal policy, it’s not good family value policy, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Legislative reactions to the murder included Congress as well. Collins introduced the Laken Riley Act to the House floor on March 4. If passed, the bill would require law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of detainees and report them to the Department of Homeland Security, where they would subsequently be detained and processed for deportation. The bill passed in the House but faces an uncertain future in the Senate. 

Frye believes that deporting undocumented immigrants for minor offenses like shoplifting and theft, which the bill would allow, has the potential to tear families apart, to the detriment of the public and the community.

“There was a time when our elected sheriff was complying with ICE. I met with a family of four American citizen children whose father had been mistakenly picked up when they were looking for somebody else. The father worked in this country and had been doing the best he could for 10 years; paid taxes, followed the rules while raising a family in Athens, and he was taken away and sent back to his country of origin. The effects of that are to place four American citizen children onto the welfare rolls because all of a sudden they didn’t have a breadwinner,” Frye said.

Gender 

Police describe Riley’s killing as a “crime of opportunity,” and while the exact motive for the crime is unknown, some media outlets have speculated that it was sexual in nature. This aspect of the crime has led to a second debate surrounding Riley’s death: the prevalence of gender based violence. Riley, like ⅓ of female homicide victims, was killed by a stranger, but a staggering 47,000 women were killed by intimate partners last year alone. Estaban says that while she did feel more nervous as a woman after the killing, she has always felt like she has to be on her guard. 

“You always hear stuff about that. Deep down, that’s always a thought in the back of your mind,” Estaban said. 

Carillo believes that gender should be the main focal point in the conversation surrounding the killing rather than Ibarra’s immigration status. 

“I think about how women shouldn’t fear waking up in the morning and going on a run. Not about how immigrants come to kill white people,” Carillo said. 

Navarro agrees with Estaban’s sentiment, claiming the killing only heightened her fears. She also believes UGA has not prioritized safety enough on campus. 

“I think I have never felt safe. I feel like you never see police around campus unless something bad happens,” Navarro said. 

Politics

Political tensions in Athens have heated up in the aftermath of the killing. On March 5, a “Make Athens Safe Again” rally was held in front of city hall, along with a smaller counterprotest across the street. Protesters called for the resignation of Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz, who they say has opened up the city to illegal immigrants. 

A major point of contention is Athens’ alleged status as a “sanctuary city” or a city whose municipal laws protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. Protesters pointed to a 2019 resolution passed by the city government which declared that the city welcomed “individuals of all statuses” as well as a 2018 policy which limited police cooperation with ICE. 

Georgia law bans sanctuary cities, and the Athens city government issued a memo last October disputing the assertion that they are.

Athens resident James DePaola has been a particularly outspoken voice in the wake of the murder. Depaola was interviewed by Fox News host Jesse Waters after he shouted at Girtz several times during a press conference. DePaola is spearheading a recall effort against Girtz on the grounds that the mayor violated Georgia law and is too radical to be in charge of city government. 

“The mayor needs to resign. That’s what he needs to do. He’s a left wing, Marxist, communist ideologue. He’s implementing policies that are anti-American, anti-family, and he’s doing things that he doesn’t have the authority of law to do,” DePaola said. 

Girtz points to his large margin of victory in his reelection as a rebuttal.

“I’m in this seat until the end of 2026 and I plan to continue to work hard at it. I was elected twice with 60% of the vote,” Girtz said. 

DePaola and other conservatives have said that they are not against immigration as a concept, but are opposed to immigrants who come to the U.S. without proper documentation. Illegal immigrants, they argue, come to America and take jobs, use tax money and commit crimes. 

“If I walk into my house and there’s a bunch of strangers in my kitchen eating my food that I pay for and they don’t knock, I think you would be pretty upset if that happened to you,” DePaola said. “We’re not against immigration. We’re against illegal aliens crossing our borders because we don’t know who they are. Well we just found out who one of them was. He murdered Laken Riley.”

Frye points to the economic benefit that undocumented immigrants provide for Georgia. According to the Migrant Policy institute, roughly 216,000 undocumented migrants are employed in the state. 

“Georgia is an agricultural state. This state relies heavily on immigrant populations to do a lot of the work that would not be done otherwise. Whether it’s in a chicken factory, or in a field, or picking cabbages down in South Georgia, I think it’s important to admit the fact that our immigrant population is essential to the economy of this state,” Frye said. 

According to a study conducted over 63 years by Stanford University, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than American-born men. Frye says that the state legislature should focus on crimes committed by U.S. citizens before spending resources on a problem he believes is less important. 

“Our Georgia citizens are committing a lot more horrific crimes than anybody else. We ought to get our own house in order,” Frye said. 

Salinas points out that many immigrants come to the United States to escape violence in their country of origin, and would have little motivation to commit crime here. 

“They came here for safety. Why would they want to cause harm when they want it to leave harm in the first place?” Salinas said.