Southeast
Laken Riley murder: Family of slain Georgia student sobs in court as witnesses describe crime scene evidence
WARNING: GRAPHIC
ATHENS, Ga. – Jose Ibarra, the suspect accused of killing Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley on Feb. 22, returned to court Tuesday for the third day of his trial as the state continues to bring witnesses forward.
Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national, is charged with 10 counts in connection with Riley’s murder on the morning of Feb. 22, when Riley was out for her usual morning jog along trails on the University of Georgia campus near Lake Herrick.
The state’s first witness on Tuesday, UGA Police Department Sgt. Sophie Raboud, testified that a suspicious person was seen on trail camera footage on the morning of Feb. 22, lurking between an apartment building housing UGA students on campus and the trails where Riley was eventually attacked and killed for about an hour.
The trail camera played in court on Tuesday shows the suspicious person — whom prosecutors allege is Jose Ibarra — as well as Riley and Riley’s roommates all traveling in the same area between the approximate hours of 6:50 a.m. and 11:50 a.m., Raboud said.
WATCH TRAIL CAM:
Beginning around 6:50 a.m., the suspicious person was captured slinking around in dark clothing and carrying a white cup near the bus stop area, which meets a pathway that leads to the back of Ibarra’s apartment complex.
The video, which was played in court on Tuesday morning, also showed the person going to a student’s door six times before 8 a.m. That student testified on Monday afternoon that she heard and saw a suspicious person in dark clothing looking into her first-floor apartment windows and trying to break in. She called 911 immediately upon seeing the suspicious person.
LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER JOSE IBARRA FLEW FROM ‘GROUND ZERO’ OF MIGRANT CRISIS TO GEORGIA
Georgia prosecutors showed an image of Laken Riley jogging before her murder, during the trial of defendant Jose Ibarra, pictured in court. (Fox News)
Among the 10 counts Ibarra faces is a “peeping Tom” charge in connection with the break-in incident, which prosecutor Sheila Ross linked to Riley’s murder, saying in her opening statements that Ibarra “went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus.”
Trail camera footage played in court Tuesday also shows Riley running at 9:06 a.m. on Feb. 22, just minutes before her 911 call at 9:11 a.m., toward trails near the same UGA bus stop where the suspicious person was lurking. She runs past other students on the trails, as well as a group of students waiting for transportation at the bus stop where the suspicious person was seen on the same camera just about an hour prior.
An image displayed on a screen shows Jose Ibarra, who was seen wearing a hat that led the police to his arrest during the second day of his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Her mother, Allyson Phillips, cried in court as the footage of Riley’s final moments were played.
“You’re making me nervous.”
“You’re making me nervous. Not answering while you’re out running. Are you okay?” Phillips texted Riley at 9:58 a.m., according to Raboud.
Just after 11:30 a.m., Riley’s roommates can be seen on the trail camera going out to look for Riley with their dog. At 11:47, Phillips texted her daughter, “Please call me. I’m worried sick about you.”
Allyson Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, second left, listens during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Just before 10 a.m., Riley’s mother, who frequently spoke with her daughter while Riley was out running — and had in fact spoken to Riley just when the 22-year-old left home to go on her jog — began to show signs of worry that Riley was not picking up her calls, according to cellphone data analyzed by Raboud.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, the courtroom heard details about Riley’s autopsy, as well as details about a microanalysis of small fibers and hairs on certain pieces of evidence.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) investigator Anne Kisler-Rao said she inspected the long, dark hairs that were wrapped in a button on a dark jacket that officers located in a dumpster in of Jose Ibarra’s apartment complex. She said 21 of the total 29 hairs on the jacket were consistent with Laken Riley’s hair. She also testified that there would have to be “some sort of force” to remove those hairs from her head because their roots were still intact.
Riley’s younger sister cried in court while details of her death and evidence from the crime scene were discussed in court Tuesday afternoon.
From left, Connolly Huth, roommate of Laken Riley, and Lauren Phillips, Riley’s younger sister, become emotional during the trial for Jose Ibarra at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Hairs consistent with RIley’s were also found on rocks recovered from the crime scene, Kisler-Rao. Phillips cried quietly during the GBI investigator’s testimony.
Lastly, Kisler-Rao told the court that she inspected Riley’s underwear, which had “damage is consistent with having been torn.” GBI medical examiner Dr. Michelle Dimarco testified before Kisler-Rao that she “did not observe anything that would make [her] believe there was a sexual assault” at the time of Riley’s murder.
Jose Ibarra appears at his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
GBI crime lab tech Katrina Ostapovicz was next to testify and told the courtroom that the dark jacket with hair on it, the rocks recovered from the crime scene and three gloves recovered from a bush near the same dumpster where the jacket was found all tested positive for “likely” blood. She submitted the evidence for DNA testing.
Ostapovicz also tested a black Adidas hat that Ibarra was seen wearing in iPhone photos he took the morning of Riley’s murder, and it also came up positive for blood.
The jacket tested positive for DNA matching Jose Ibarra’s DNA and Laken Riley’s DNA, according to GBI forensic investigator Ashley Hinkle. Additionally, the three plastic gloves tested positive for DNA matching Laken Riley’s DNA, the black Adidas hat with blood on it tested positive for DNA matching Riley’s, and rocks recovered from the crime scene tested positive for DNA matching Riley’s.
A hat allegedly belonging to Jose Ibarra is presented as evidence during the trial for Ibarra at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Poo)
Riley’s fingernail clippings contained DNA matching Jose Ibarra’s DNA more than his younger brother Agenis Ibarra’s and his older brother Diego Ibarra’s DNA, Hinkle testified.
“The match is 10 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in the population.”
“The DNA match between the wet, dry swabs, from [Riley’s] fingernail clippings from the right hand … was to Jose Antonio Ibarra,” Hinkle testified Tuesday. “The match is 10 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in the population.”
LAKEN RILEY MURDER TRIAL: PROSECUTORS PLACE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT AT SCENE IN OPENING STATEMENTS
The defense began questioning witnesses after 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Jose’s older brother, Diego, was their third witness. Diego walked into the courtroom at 4:30 p.m. wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles around his wrists. Diego is currently facing federal green card fraud charges for showing a false ID with two different birthdays to police when they arrived at his apartment to question him and his brothers on Feb. 23.
Diego’s defense attorney expressed to Jose’s attorney, John Donnelly, that Diego should not testify in Jose’s trial, Donnelly said. Judge Haggard advised that the court should not proceed with Diego’s testimony, and then the prosecution and defense met to discuss the matter behind closed doors.
Diego Ibarra is seen wearing a Chicago Bulls hat. (Middle District of Georgia)
The defense’s second witness, Stephanie Slaton, lived in an apartment next to the Ibarra family at the time of Riley’s murder. She testified that she spoke to Diego Ibarra on Feb. 23, the day after Riley died, while “a lot” police were walking around in the area of the complex.
Diego Ibarra suggested he did not know why police were walking around and asked Slaton what had happened. Slaton, in turn, explained that someone had “passed away” behind their apartment complex. Two police officers then approached them and asked what they were talking about. Slaton answered them, and they walked away, she said.
Slaton then testified that Diego, whom she had a sexual relationship with at the time, used a translator app to tell her in English, “If you tell them, I will tell them you did it and then I will kill you too.”
On cross examination, Slaton admitted that she could not speculate what Diego meant by “if you tell them” because he had been unfamiliar with Riley’s murder and the reason police were walking around their apartment building. She also admitted that she had been angry at Diego for having relations with another woman.
On Monday, the second day of Ibarra’s trial, the court heard a recorded prison phone call between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, that was played aloud and translated by an FBI analyst who spoke fluent Spanish. Judge Patrick Haggard on Tuesday ruled that the translated call could not be submitted as evidence.
Layling Franco walks outside a migrant shelter in Queens, NY on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Franco is the wife of Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was arrested in Georgia on suspicion for killing 22-year-old university student Laken Riley. (Brigitte Stelzer)
“She said that she thinks it’s crazy that they don’t have anyone else’s DNA. They only have his. And she says she doesn’t understand how someone can see someone dying and not calling [sic] 911,” FBI analyst Abeisis Ramirez testified in court on Monday while translating the call for the prosecution.
The call placed Ibarra at the crime scene, according to Fox News contributor Paul Mauro, a former executive officer for the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Operations and Analysis Bureau.
“She very clearly doesn’t believe him. … She says, at one point, ‘Jose, I know you,’ a very … telling moment,” Mauro said of the calling with Franco.. “And then at one point … the real crushing statement is when she says to him, ‘I can’t believe somebody could see somebody dying and not call 911.’”
Mauro said he believes the phone call seems to “be a reference to him having told her, I was there, I saw the body, but I didn’t call 911, and I didn’t do it.”
Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Feb. 22. An illegal immigrant has been charged with her murder. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
“The most interesting thing, I thought, was actually the most prosaic, which is the fact that [Riley] has fingernail scrapings — she had skin under her fingernails — from fighting for her life, and Jose had injuries with having gotten those injuries from that kind of a fight,” Mauro said, referring to UGA Police Department bodycam footage played in court on Monday that showed investigators looking at Ibarra’s body for signs of injury.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED IN LAKEN RILEY MURDER ‘FAST-TRACKING’ TO LIFE IN PRISON: ATTORNEY
Bodycam footage from that morning show officers’ first encounter with Ibarra on Feb. 23. They initially arrived at the apartment around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 23 and questioned Jose’s brothers, Diego and Argenis Ibarra, before they obtained a search warrant and went inside the apartment.
WATCH: POLICE ENTER JOSE IBARRA’S APARTMENT:
The footage shows officers walking inside shining a light on Jose, who was in bed at the time, and repeatedly saying “hola” in an effort to wake him up. After about a minute, Jose gets out of bed and puts his hands up.
“This is speculation, but I suspect he was likely highly intox[icated],” Mauro said, noting that investigators linked a white plastic cup containing a liquid smelling of alcohol to the scene of Riley’s murder. A suspicious male was seen holding a white cup in security camera footage taken near the crime scene that morning. Late on, investigators found a similar white, plastic cup that smelled of alcohol on Feb. 22, according to law enforcement testimony on Monday.
LAKEN RILEY MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN GEORGIA COLLEGE STUDENT SLAYING ASKS TO HIDE CERTAIN EVIDENCE
A general view of the area where Laken Riley’s body was found near Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Jose Antonio Ibarra has been charged with the murder of Riley after she was killed earlier this week. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
The suspect is charged with 10 counts total, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of hindering a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of being a “peeping Tom.” Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Prosecutor Ross said Ibarra then encountered Riley on her typical morning run and attacked her.
Laken Riley’s killing has gripped the nation as the border crisis continues. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)
“On Feb. 22, Jose Ibarra put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus,” Ross said in her opening statement Friday.
Ibarra and his brothers, also in the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running.
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Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, listens through an interpreter as he sits with his attorneys Dustin Kirby, second left, and Kaitlyn Beck, left, during his trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
The defendant’s attorney, Dustin Kirby, argued in his opening statement that evidence would not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra killed Riley. He said it would take “gymnastics” for the prosecution to argue Ibarra killed Riley with what he described as “circumstantial evidence.”
“If that happens and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged,” Kirby said on Monday.
Jose Ibarra looks down as he listens through an interpreter during his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Poolv)
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark previously described the murder as a “crime of opportunity” during a February press conference.
Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News.
Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)
Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly in a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.
ICE previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Virginia prosecutor’s record on violent offenders scrutinized after illegal immigrant charged in mom’s murder
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A prosecutor in Virginia is facing criticism after a Fairfax County Police Department officer warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal immigrant who has racked up over 30 arrests before allegedly killing a mother.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office, however, was warned several times about how dangerous Jalloh is, and dismissed many of his previous criminal charges.
Jalloh’s case is far from the only controversial actions by Descano’s office, which even includes a plea deal with a murder suspect that allows him the chance at freedom.
POLICE WARNED PROSECUTORS 3 TIMES ABOUT VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BEFORE HE ALLEGEDLY KILLED VIRGINIA MOTHER
Here’s a list of controversial cases handled by Descano’s office:
Abdul Jalloh
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop. (Fox 5 DC)
Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. The victim, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her upper body, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jalloh has a violent rapsheet dating back to 2014 and includes over 30 arrests with several charges dismissed by Descano’s office.
Jalloh was arrested the next day while he was allegedly trying to steal from a liquor store when an employee called 911. Officials said Jalloh came to the U.S. illegally in 2012 from Sierra Leone under the Obama administration.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020, and he was later issued a final order of removal allowing him to be deported to any country other than Sierra Leone. Despite that order, he was not deported.
A police major for the Fairfax County Police Department even warned Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano about Jalloh on at least three separate occasions, according to emails obtained by WJLA.
In one email to Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, the police major said Jalloh “is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders” that they had discussed before.
TRAVIS COUNTY DA FACES RENEWED ‘SOFT ON CRIME’ CRITICISM AFTER CAREER CRIMINAL CHARGED WITH MURDER
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano speaking at an event. (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
“I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status,” the major wrote.
A Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the office “was aware of Jalloh’s criminal history and shared police concerns about potential future dangerousness. That is why our Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney personally handled these cases.”
The spokesperson added that prosecutors “will often explore many different pathways to successful prosecution, but, at the end of the day, our decisions are constrained by what testimony is available and what is legally permissible and practicable in Fairfax courts.”
Joshua Danehower
In 2022, Joshua Danehower was arrested for the murder of Gret Glyer. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In 2022, Danehower was charged with Gret Glyer’s murder. According to WUSA 9, Glyer, who owned the donation platform DonorSee, was shot 10 times as he slept next to his wife on June 24, 2022.
Prosecutors alleged Danehower killed Glyer because of an obsession with his wife. The suspect allegedly became fixated with her after a church function, and according to her family, the two had gone on a date about a decade ago.
Danehower was given a plea deal by Descano’s office, which found him not guilty by reason of insanity in February.
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Virginia law requires Danehower to be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where his status will be evaluated on an annual basis for the next five years, then every two years afterward. If he’s deemed no longer a threat to himself or others, he’d have an opportunity to be released from the psychiatric hospital.
Heather Glyer, the victim’s wife, said while on the witness stand, “I was robbed of my life partner.”
“My kids were robbed of their father,” she added.
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron pleaded guilty to lesser charges. (DHS)
In January 2025, according to a report by former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Ramos-Giron, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, choked his ex-wife during an argument and pulled out a knife.
He was charged with felony abduction by force, felony strangulation, and misdemeanor assault and battery against a family member after the incident, but Descano’s office allowed him to plead to lesser charges of misdemeanor battery and brandishing a bladed weapon.
In a statement released by Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff and Public Information Officer Laura Birnbaum, according to the report, the plea agreement “achieved the outcomes that the victim wanted.”
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However, when the victim spoke with 7News, she refuted Birnbaum’s statement, saying she didn’t agree to the plea deal.
“He’s dangerous,” she said, fearing another violent incident would happen.
“If I die, who is going to take care of them?” the victim asked, referring to her children.
Ronnie Reel
Ronnie Reel accepted a plea deal by Fairfax county prosecutors. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In July 2021, Reel was arrested on charges of sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery against a minor, according to the Fairfax County Times.
During Reel’s trial on Sept. 13, 2022, Chief Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court Penney Azcarate ruled that the Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s office had missed an evidentiary deadline, meaning confessions, including a call from Reel to a defendant’s mother where he allegedly confessed, as well as other evidence and witnesses couldn’t be used in court.
According to the outlet, that meant the case would rely on the victim’s testimony entirely.
As a result, Reel was offered a plea deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery and was sentenced to one year in prison, but was released on time served. He also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to FOX 5.
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The mother, who asked to be identified as Amber, told FOX 5 the case has had a big impact on her son.
“I was really upset. This is my child, this is my baby,” she said while crying. “And he got no justice. So he continues to see me cry and everything. He held his own, he stayed strong. He’s always trying to be strong for mom.”
“He was confessing every little detail that he did, and it was making me sick to my stomach,” she added. “It was horrible. He literally confessed to me why he did it.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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Immigration enforcement is a core federal power. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the duty to write our federal immigration laws. Under Article II, the President has the duty to enforce them. States cannot meddle and certainly not obstruct. Unfortunately, many Democrat states, especially Virginia, are on a deadly collision course with the federal government.
American voters gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a broad electoral mandate to reverse the disaster the Biden-Harris border policy caused in every state in America by mass importing as many as 20 million illegal aliens, including the worst of the worst around the world.
Activist judges and other Democrat politicians and election deniers have done everything they can fathom to thwart Trump’s constitutional duty to expel these dangerous illegal aliens.
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The latest example is Virginia, which is passing a series of unconstitutional laws that would dangerously and illegally obstruct ICE. These proposals include criminal penalties, meaning that state law enforcement would attempt to arrest and jail ICE agents for simply doing their jobs.
This effort is seditious, insurrectionist, extremely dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. For the sake of the Republic, the Justice Department must immediately and aggressively quell this Virginia seditious conspiracy.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Davis Spanberger laughs aloud during a ceremony in a Virginia court in Richmond. (Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images)
Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano is the Soros puppet Democrat prosecutor in the DC suburb, an uber-wealthy Democrat enclave that is an albatross around Virginia’s neck. Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien who invaded our country in 2012. Jalloh settled in Virginia and began wreaking havoc on the good citizens there, racking up a whopping 30 arrests. These included one for rape and four charges for stabbing Americans.
Yet, thanks to the willful ineptitude of Fairfax County’s Democrat regime, Jalloh only had one felony conviction. He violated his probation, spent three months in jail and went free because of a deal between his lawyer and Descano’s office. Sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County do not notify ICE when detaining or releasing illegals like Jalloh, who had a final order of removal from 2020.
Police in Fairfax repeatedly warned Descano’s office via email that Jalloh’s release would endanger the public, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Earlier this week, Jalloh allegedly stabbed to death 41-year-old innocent mother Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate Democrat. But after her inauguration this year, she immediately showed her true leftist colors. She issued an order prohibiting cooperation between state officials and ICE.
Several anti-ICE bills await Spanberger’s signature: (1) a prohibition against ICE arrests at courthouses (where these alleged dangerous criminal illegals visit daily); (2) a prohibition against ICE arrests within 40 feet of polling places (where illegals violate federal criminal laws by voting); and (3) criminal penalties for ICE agents who wear masks (because they don’t want to get doxxed and killed).
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
If Spanberger signs these unconstitutional state laws, the Trump Justice Department should immediately sue and seek to enjoin them in court. A Virginia federal judge should issue an injunction, following the lead of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which fully stayed California’s unconstitutional prohibition against ICE agents’ use of masks.
But civil enforcement is not enough. Virginia Democrat officials plotting to arrest ICE agents for doing their jobs (seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384) — and especially those who cause the arrests (insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, assault, kidnapping, harboring, conspiracy, and more) — must go to federal prison for their serious federal felonies. If anyone gets killed in a deadly standoff between these new Virginia confederates and ICE, these Virginia Democrat officials must face felony murder charges.
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Former President Biden and his missing-in-action border czar Kamala Harris allowed millions of illegal immigrants, including the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, to pour across our borders. Trump is doing everything in his power to fulfill his broad electoral mandate and undo the damage by arresting and deporting these illegals.
Virginia’s proposed laws do not merely prohibit communication between state officials and ICE; rather, they criminalize federal law enforcement actions that are plainly within the scope of federal immigration enforcement power.
Abdul Jalloh has racked up over 30 arrests since entering the U.S., according to officials. (DHS)
States do not have to help ICE by, for instance, providing law enforcement resources to assist in ICE apprehensions of illegals. But states certainly cannot subvert or obstruct these federal efforts. This is especially true of Virginia’s attempt to arrest ICE agents in the line of duty, which could justify their use of deadly force.
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Virginia’s attempt to subvert and obstruct federal law must fail. We fought the Civil War because the Confederacy, headquartered in Virginia, sought to nullify federal law with respect to slavery. Today’s Virginia Democrats are reverting to their confederate roots.
Just as the federal government did during the Civil War and for a century after when segregationist states continued their efforts to nullify federal law, the federal government now must stand strong against Virginia’s sedition and insurrection. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes plain that federal law is supreme in areas where the federal government has authority.
If Virginia gets away with effectively nullifying federal immigration enforcement, other states can nullify any other federal law that it finds distasteful. Let’s hope Abigail Spanberger comes to her senses and vetoes this insanity. If she does not, the federal government must use all tools at its disposal, including the Insurrection Act of 1807 and other federal criminal statutes, to preserve federal law.
Virginia state officials must go to federal prison for engaging in seditious conspiracy, insurrections and other very serious federal felonies. Anything less would threaten the existence of the Republic.
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Southeast
South Carolina pastor describes evacuating members from Middle East after war broke out during Israel trip
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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – Dozens of members of a South Carolina church are finally back in the United States after Operation Epic Fury left them stranded in Israel for nearly a week after their flight was supposed to depart.
Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville landed in Israel on Feb. 20 for eight days of exploration in the Holy Land.
The group was set to fly home on Feb. 28 and had arrived at the airport three hours before their scheduled departure when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The attack prompted the closure of Israel’s airspace and the group had to evacuate the airport.
“It felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders and I just prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to give me wisdom,” said Vic Carroll, pastor at Calvary Chapel Summerville in South Carolina.
TRAVELERS STRANDED IN DUBAI PAYING HUGE SUMS TO FLEE ON PRIVATE CHARTER FLIGHTS AMID OPERATION EPIC FURY
Members of Calvary Chapel Summerville visit Al-Khazneh in Petra. (Melanie Carroll)
Carroll said the group had to shelter-in-place in Israel, going in and out of bomb shelters for several days. He then had to face the decision of the group staying or taking a bus to Jordan to have a shot at getting a flight back to the United States.
“We ultimately, you know, made the decision between what was bad and what was worse. I thought the worst would be to stay,” the pastor said.
“We were instructed that if a siren goes off while we were on the road, the bus would pull over, we would all need to get on the ground, lay on the ground face-down for at least 10 minutes until the threat was gone, and then be on our way,” he continued.
STATE DEPARTMENT USES PATRIOTS TEAM PLANE TO EVACUATE AMERICANS FROM MIDDLE EAST
The members of Calvary Chapel Summerville sightseeing in the Holy Land. (Melanie Carroll)
Fortunately, that did not happen and the group made it to the airport in Jordan to hop on a flight out of the Middle East Thursday morning.
Before the flight, Carroll said it was frightening, but their faith was greater than their fear.
“We’re just having to trust that we’re making the right decision, and this is our only option to get home, so we [were] just trusting in God,” he said.
AMERICAN STUCK IN MIDDLE EAST ESCAPES IN RACE TO REACH CRITICALLY ILL HUSBAND IN CALIFORNIA
The group returned to the U.S. on Thursday night, landing at JFK in New York.
Melanie Carroll, the pastor’s wife, texted, “We are so thankful!!!!! It’s surreal!!”
Melanie and Vic Carroll while visiting The Holy Land. (Kailey Schuyler)
The unexpected extension of the trip caused the price tag to increase significantly. Melanie created a GoFundMe, writing, “The path to get us home between lodging, flights and transfers will be upwards of $2500 per person.”
The group was able to raise their goal of $100,000 in less than three days.
Melanie said the group is continuing to pray for everyone trying to get out of the Middle East.
Nearly 24,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. after fleeing the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began last week, according to the State Department.
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