Ted Cruz mentions Laken Riley during Republican National Convention speech

MILWAUKEE — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz mentioned slain nursing student Laken Riley by name during his speech Tuesday evening at the Republican National Convention.

The Texas Republican brought up Riley while discussing illegal immigration in the U.S.

The theme on the second day of the RNC was “Make America Safe Again,” and illegal immigration and crime were the focal points of several speakers.

Cruz also mentioned several other high-profile killings in which Americans were allegedly slain by migrants in the country illegally.

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus, was found beaten to death Feb. 22 in a wooded area near the University of Georgia’s intramural fields.

Credit: TNS

Authorities said she was killed after leaving her home that morning for a run.

The man charged in her killing, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra , is a Venezuela national who was arrested in 2022 after unlawfully entering the United States, federal immigration officials said.

Riley’s photograph was shown on the Fiserv Forum’s jumbotron during a video montage leading up to Cruz’s speech.

“We are facing an invasion on our Southern border,” said Cruz, who contended that more than 11 million people have entered the country illegally during Joe Biden’s presidency.

“Think of Laken Riley, just 22 years old, a nursing student with dreams of healing others,” he told the crowd. “She went for a jog and never came home, her life taken by someone who should have never been here.”

Riley’s killing stunned two Georgia communities: Athens, where she had lived for several years while attending UGA and Augusta University’s nursing school, and Woodstock, where she graduated from River Ridge High School.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Her death also galvanized many conservatives critical of what they said is a lack of security along the southern U.S. border.

Other high-profile homicide cases mentioned by Cruz included Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl who police said was sexually assaulted and strangled to death last month. Authorities said Nungaray was walking to a convenience store when she went missing. Her body was found the next day in a creek, and two men in the country illegally were later charged in her death. Cruz also spoke of the deaths of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five who was killed last month along a popular hiking trail, and Kate Steinle, who died in 2015 after being struck by a stray bullet while walking along a San Francisco pier.

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