Georgia state senators have approved a severe immigration enforcement bill in the aftermath of nursing student Laken Riley’s savage beating death, which was reportedly committed by a Venezuelan migrant.
CNN reported that the bill now only requires Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.
“While Joe Biden and his liberal allies refuse to protect our citizens and secure our southern border, Georgia Senate Republicans are passing legislation to protect our state from criminal illegal immigrants,” the senators from the Peach State said in a post on X.
“Let us be clear, sanctuary cities will not be tolerated in Georgia,” the statement read.
The state’s move Thursday comes after the Republican-led US House of Representatives approved the federal Laken Riley Act on March 7, which has since stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The federal legislation would require immigration enforcement authorities to arrest illegal immigrants and deport them if they commit a crime.
It would also require asylum seekers to wait for immigration hearings on the Mexican side of the US southern border, rather than within the country, where thousands have flocked to “asylum cities” such as New York.
The Georgia bill, which is expected to receive Kemp’s support, mandates state and local law enforcement to verify the immigration status of migrants over the age of 18 who are arrested, detained, or have “probable cause to believe” that they have committed a crime.
Both pieces of legislation follow Riley’s gruesome murder on the University of Georgia campus.
The 22-year-old nursing student was out for a run on Feb. 22 when police say she was ambushed and brutally beaten, and her body was found along a trail in a forested area of campus.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, who immigration officials say entered the country illegally, was detained after the heinous attack and is now facing murder charges.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ibarra entered the country in September 2022 from El Paso, Texas, and briefly lived in New York City before settling in with his brother in Georgia.
Riley attended the University of Georgia before transferring to nearby Augusta University.
The high-profile case prompted the introduction of a state bill.
After passing the state Senate 34-19 earlier this month, the state House voted 99-75 on Thursday to send the measure to the governor’s desk.
One state Senate Democrat who opposed the plan referred to it as “a xenophobic bill.”
“This bill will result in racial profiling of our immigrant communities and will not make Georgians safer,” Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes wrote on X. “I will always fight to protect our immigrant communities.”