Hawley slams Democratic expert for downplaying migrant crime: ‘Not an actual issue’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., drilled into a migrant rights activist in a heated moment during a Senate hearing on the “Remain in Mexico” policy on Thursday for what he said amounted to downplaying the murder of Laken Riley and for saying migrant crime is “not an actual issue.”

“In March of 2024, you wrote: ‘The murder of a nursing student in Georgia has a lot of people on the right talking about migrant crime like it’s an actual issue,’” said Hawley. 

Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University who was found dead on the University of Georgia’s campus in February. Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant, was found guilty of 10 total counts, including felony murder. He initially pleaded not guilty but was ultimately sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in November.

“Here’s Laken Riley,” said Hawley as her picture was posted behind him. “Her murder, her horrific murder at the hands of this illegal migrant who was also unlawfully paroled in the United States. [Is] her death not an actual issue?”

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The activist, Adam Isacson, who works as director of defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, responded by saying: “Of course it’s an issue, it’s a tragedy.”

“I didn’t say that Laken Riley’s death was not an actual issue, I said that migrant crime is not an actual issue,” said Isacson. “Migrant crime is much less of an issue than U.S. citizen-committed crime.”

To which Hawley answered, “[Riley] is dead because of migrant crime.”

Hawley also pointed to the case of a St. Louis-area 12-year-old named Travis Wolfe who was killed in a car crash involving an illegal immigrant.

“I happen to think that their violent murders are actual issues,” he said. “And the fact that you would say otherwise, sit here and advise the Senate that the Laken Riley Act is a bad idea, that the whole thing is not an actual issue, it’s all just, what, made up? I think [it] is outrageous. I think it’s absolutely outrageous.”

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Isacson, who said he was invited to testify in the hearing by a Democratic member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that the bipartisan Laken Riley Act, which has already passed in the House and would require ICE to arrest and detain illegal immigrants that have committed a crime, “could do a lot of harm” and “would allow me to say: ‘oh, this person shoplifted.’ And that would be enough probable cause to get somebody deported.”

Hawley shot back: “I want the record to be clear on this, that migrant crime is a real issue.”

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“I think the Laken Riley Act is absolutely necessary,” he said. “In fact, I propose an amendment to the Laken Riley Act that will cover people like Travis Wolfe. I think that ICE ought to be detaining, ought to be required to detain, those illegal migrants who commit violent crimes against children like Travis Wolfe.”

Speaking to Fox News Digital after the hearing, another one of the experts testifying, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that Hawley was “voicing the frustration that very many Americans feel about migrant crime in the United States.”

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“We’ve seen many not only high profile but shocking crimes that have been carried out in the United States by migrants who were stopped at the border and then released into the United States,” he said. “It’s called the Department of Homeland Security for a reason; the purpose of this department is to ensure that citizens of the United States and aliens who are lawfully here are protected from criminal predation. Unfortunately, on this at the border, the Biden-Harris administration dropped the ball.”

“Individuals who are criminals, who by law should not be allowed into the United States at all, were actually released into this country and now they are free to prey on both migrant and citizen communities in this country,” Arthur added. “So, job one for Tom Homan — Donald Trump’s border czar — and the president himself is going to be rounding up, detaining and removing all the criminal aliens, all the individuals who are preying upon both migrant and citizen communities in this country.”

Despite the theatrics, Arthur said it was a “good hearing” because there was “a lot of bipartisan agreement on the need to secure the border.” 

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“Customs and Border Protection referred to Remain in Mexico as indispensable for border security the first time that it was used under the Trump administration,” he said. “I think that when you look at the amount of money that has flowed into the cartels’ pockets over the last four years, you know, as we’ve seen, 8 million, 10 million people come unlawfully into the United States and you contrast that to the number of people who were sent back to Mexico, I think that the balance is definitely in favor of enforcing the border and potentially re-implementing Remain in Mexico.

“As long as the migrants continue to come to the United States in large numbers, the cartels are going to get rich, they’re just going to expand their capabilities and they’re just going to ship more drugs into the United States.”