Georgia Republicans seek new laws to crack down on immigrants after nursing student killed

By JEFF AMY and JEFF MARTIN
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia House Republicans are pushing to require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants, arrest them and detain them for deportation. The proposal advanced through a committee on Tuesday after police charged a Venezuelan man with beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus. Jose Ibarra was arrested Friday on murder and assault charges in the Thursday death of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Immigration authorities say the 26-year-old Ibarra unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022. Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus. The University of Georgia says it will spend $7.3 million to bolster security.