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It was bound to happen sooner or later. With the lawlessness and lack of leadership that pervades this nation, it was bound to happen. It has already been happening in other parts of the country and has been happening for quite some time now. However, unless it hits close to home, it’s easy to say, “Thank God that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”
It is easy to shake our heads and turn off the television and go to bed in the secure belief that, in our world, such things never happen. But they do. And, finally, they did.
The young college co-ed prepared to do what she had done many times before. She enjoyed jogging and the weather was good. Jogging, no doubt, helped relieve the tension and stress of her college coursework.
She was preparing for a career that would likely result in her being able to save lives, minister to the sick, perhaps help bring babies into the world, and be with people and their families as they lay dying.
Her major was one of the more demanding in the university system. She had many more hours required of her than the average student, Not only did she carry a full load but her chosen field also demanded labs and clinicals.
Twenty-two-year-old Laken Riley was a nursing student. She had attended the University of Georgia before transferring to the nursing program at Augusta Medical College’s Athens, Georgia’s campus.
Her middle name was “Hope,” and she was a Christian active in Woodstock City Church. She had participated in countless mission trips. And then she went for her jog on the University of Georgia campus.
Laken’s body was found near where she had jogged. Police launched a vigorous investigation and arrested twenty-four-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who, police say, illegally entered the United States through El Paso, Texas and was later arrested, and released after a “child endangerment” charge in New York.
Iberra has been charged with numerous felonies in the murder of Laken Riley, including Felony Murder which carries with it the possibility of the death penalty in Georgia. Police say she died of blunt trauma. Simply put, she was beaten to death. Other charges may be added depending on the results of Laken’s autopsy.
While everyone should be horrified, no one should be shocked or surprised. Since January 2021, under the current president’s administration, according to msn.com, nearly 10 million people have broken the laws of the United States and have illegally crossed the southern border.
Among them are people on the terror watch list, cartel members, gang members, and other assorted criminals, malefactors, and murderers. The so-called sanctuary cities, whose leaders boasted that illegal aliens would find a welcome there, predictably have been overwhelmed and are now begging the taxpayers to bail them out.
In 2021 and 2022, the border patrol arrested over 18,000 “criminal non-citizens.” In 2022 alone, nypost.com reported that there were between 500,000 and 600,000 “got-a-ways” who are now somewhere in the country, and nothing is known about them. What certainly is unknown is how many predators were among the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, about which nothing is known.
Texas Governor Greg Abbot has demonstrated that illegal immigration can be stopped. Democrat mayors along the border are calling for relief and action. In 1972, Vicki Lawrence released the song, “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Part of the song’s lyrics are “…the judge in the town’s got bloodstains on his hands.”
One cannot really fault people who want to come to America. This is still the Land of Opportunity for hardworking people who enter the country legally. It is also the Land of Opportunity for bad actors who are criminals and dangerous people.
It is the government’s job to secure the safety of its citizens, and, in this regard, feckless and incompetent politicians have failed miserably.
While Iberra may have brutally taken the life of a young woman with a brilliant future, the fact is he should have never been in the country, never should have been released by the border patrol, never should have been able to commit crimes in New York, never should have been released from NY custody, and should have never been in Georgia.
Laken Hope Riley should have never been in danger from a vicious predator while she jogged on the University of Georgia campus. She should have never died.
But that which shouldn’t have happened was bound to happen and this time it hit close to home. In a real sense the “lights went out in Georgia” when Laken was murdered. Georgians feel the loss.
She certainly hasn’t been the only victim of criminals who have illegally crossed the border, but this one was just down the road a bit. Those who have failed to do their duty and secure the borders, deliberately it seems, have blood on their hands.
[David Epps is the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King (www.ctk.life). Worship services are on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and on livestream at www.ctk.life. He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South (www.midsouthdiocese.life). He may be contacted at [email protected].]
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