by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News April 18, 2024
Jose Ibarra, the illegal alien who has been charged in the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, had been released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under a parole program championed by DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Ibarra’s confidential immigration file.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley read key parts of the file into the record at a Senate hearing on Thursday. The file showed that Ibarra was released under Mayorkas’s power of parole, which is supposed to be used in limited cases and only when there is an urgent humanitarian need or a significant benefit to the public.
But the information Hawley read from the file indicated that Ibarra had been released due to lack of detention space.
Because lack of detention space doesn’t meet either of the standards of the power of parole program, Hawley said Mayorkas broke the law in releasing Ibarra.
“Now we all know that the reason he was paroled into this country is because of lack of detention capacity, which you and I both know is not a valid reason,” the senator said.
According to the file, Ibarra entered the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2022, and was quickly released on parole.
In July 2023, he reported to immigration authorities in New York and was fingerprinted. The results showed he had “a criminal history,” Hawley said.
In September 2023, Ibarra was arrested in New York on charges of injuring a child, but the case wasn’t prosecuted.
In November 2023, he applied to Homeland Security for a permit to work legally in the U.S., and it was approved in December — after the department had the records of his criminal history.
“He had a criminal record to start with, he’s in the country on illegal grounds, you have falsely and illegally allowed him in, he commits a crime against a child, it’s expunged,” Hawley said to Mayorkas.
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Mayorkas declined to talk about the details of the case and wouldn’t say whether he had read his department’s file on Ibarra.
“I do not want to speak to the particulars of the case, given the pending prosecution,” Mayorkas said, adding “our hearts break” for the loss of Riley’s life.
Hawley blasted Mayorkas for giving two different answers about Ibarra’s case in testimony to other committees this month.
“Why did you change your story so often?” Hawley challenged.
“I’m confident that justice will be vindicated in the criminal prosecution,” Mayorkas replied.
Detention space for illegal immigrants has been a major problem for the Biden administration. Even as he’s acknowledged a lack of beds, Mayorkas has asked Congress to cut bed space even deeper in every budget he’s submitted.
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