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Georgia primaries: Immigration still the crunch issue as Bill labelled the blatant politicisation of a murder

Legislation called after murder victim roundly criticised by some Democrats as measure designed to stoke fear and misinformation about threats posed by immigrants

Supporters of former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump hold images of murder victim Laken Riley before he spoke at a Get Out the Vote rally in Rome, Georgia, US, on March 9th, 2024. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty

Keith Duggan's face
Keith Duggan in Washington
Tue Mar 12 2024 - 04:58

Voters in Georgia go to the polls in presidential primaries on Tuesday amid bitter division over immigration policy revolving around the recent murder of Laken Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia.

At a rally on Saturday in Rome, about 110km from Atlanta, Republican candidate Donald Trump met Ms Riley’s family shortly before taking the podium and blamed her death on the border policies of the White House.

“She was the brightest light in every room, they told me, and she was the whole world to her parents, her sister, to her whole family,” he told supporters.

“Incredible. Then the unthinkable happened. Sixteen days ago, Laken went out for a morning jog – she was in great shape and wanted to keep herself that way. And she never came back. They knew something was wrong,” he said. He blamed Ms Riley’s murder on ”an illegal alien criminal” whom President Joe Biden had “intentionally released into our country – because he has released tens of thousands of people like this, because they come from jails and they come from mental institutions”.

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A man arrested after the murder, whichtook place in a wooded area at the University of Georgia in Athens on February 22nd, was described by police as a Venezuelan national who, it emerged, had entered the country illegally and was then released on parole after arrest.

A Bill named after Ms Riley last week passed the US House of Representatives. It would end the practice of parole for migrants apprehended while crossing the border into the United States and reinstate the ”remain in Mexico” policy of the Trump administration, stipulating that migrants must wait on the Mexican side of the southern border while claims are processed.

The Bill advanced through the House on a 251 to 170 vote but is unlikely to advance through the Democratic-majority Senate. While the Bill received the support of 37 House Democrats, it was roundly criticised by some Democratic politicians as the blatant politicisation of a murder and a measure designed to stoke general fear and misinformation about the threats posed by immigrants.

[ Trump and Biden trade accusations as they campaign in key state of Georgia ]

However, House speaker Mike Johnson said the legislation “would help to prevent future tragedies”, adding that if Senate leader Chuck Schumer and Mr Biden were serious “about securing the border, they will bring this legislation up for a vote and sign it into law immediately”.

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Ms Laken’s murder was raised during Mr Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday night, when Georgian congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted the president when he moved to the subject of immigration, challenging him to acknowledge the victim’s name. In a back-and-forth, Mr Biden referred to the alleged killer as “an illegal”, a term which drew immediate criticism from fellow Democrats. On Saturday, during an interview prior to a separate event in Georgia, the president said he “regretted” using the term, acknowledging he should have used the word “undocumented”.

Mr Biden and Mr Trump could reach the requisite number of delegates to secure their respective party nominations for the presidency in Tuesday’s votes. Mississippi and Washington state are also holding primaries on a day which yields 254 Democratic delegates. Mr Biden is just 102 delegates short of the 1,968 needed to win. Mr Trump is 139 delegates away from the Republican threshold of 1,215 required delegates, with 169 available.

When he secures the nomination Mr Trump will become the first Republican candidate to win the party nomination for the presidency in three consecutive elections.

In 2020, Mr Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to win a presidential election vote in Georgia. That result led to the indictment, in Fulton County, of Mr Trump and several Republican supporters on charges of attempting to overturn the results of that election.

The 2020 election in Georgia came down to just over 10,000 votes separating the candidates after five million were cast. A series of polls forecasting the 2024 presidential outcome in Georgia show Mr Trump leading by an average of six percentage points.

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