Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor
The death of Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s (UGA) campus has sparked fear, outrage and questioning from the public. Initially, this fear was that of safety for college campuses. Riley’s murder was ruled a crime of opportunity by the investigating agencies and an arrest was made several days after she was found. Jose Antonio Ibarra was the man arrested for her murder, and shortly after his arrest, it was revealed that he is an illegal immigrant. Since then, Republican politicians such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, have used Riley’s death as a selling point for stricter laws regarding immigration.
Although there has been a wide sweep of politicians calling for stricter immigration laws, many students are more concerned about the safety of their colleges. While universities may have plans in terms of responding to crime on their campus, a large factor in safety is prevention. According to Berry Police Chief Ryan Chesley, the best thing that can be done is to utilize resources to provide security and eliminate opportunities for crime to occur.
“Bad things begin with opportunities,” Chesley said. “One clear way to minimize the possibility of bad things occurring is to remove opportunity. We each do that every time we lock a door, we report a maintenance issue, we report something suspicious, or similar behaviors. Beyond individual input you try to leverage resources to provide security. Resources on Berry’s campus include camera technology, gate technology, electronic access technology, license plate recognition technology and multi platform communication technologies to help deter and respond to threat issues. It would be unrealistic to say that any one of these things is foolproof or without limitations. That’s why it really is the aggregate presence of all of these things together that create our safest spaces.”
While these tools may be in place, some students feel as though they are not sufficient in preventing crime or giving a feeling of safety.
“I feel pretty safe on campus until it is night time,” senior Sydney Godfrey said. “Sometimes I feel that we do not have adequate lighting where we commonly walk such as trails and parking lots. And unless they’ve been banned from campus, such as if they were kicked out of school, anyone can get in.”
The death of Laken Riley has sparked a louder call for immigration restrictions and blame on illegal immigrants for crime from the far-right conservative side. According to Assistant Professor of Political Science Abigail Vegter, the reason for the use of this particular incident is because it fits the narrative that the far-right is trying to perpetuate.
“It’s really nice when we have stories that fit the narrative we’ve been trying to tell,” Vegter said. “It is a tragic story, which is awful and I don’t want to dismiss that. It is just extremely convenient for the use of the far-right. I think it’s a very layered story that has other issues that it calls to attention, but the one that is being focused on the most is the immigration element.”
Xenophobia against immigrants, especially those who have crossed into the country illegally, has worsened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Institute of Health. While much of the xenophobia surrounding the pandemic was directed against Asian-Americans, there has been increased xenophobia against other groups as well, especialy by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He primarily does this by blaming illegal immigrants for economic stress, lack of open jobs and crime.
“Illegal immigration affects the lives of all Americans,” Trump said in a press release in 2018. “Illegal immigration hurts American workers; burdens American taxpayers; and undermines public safety; and places enormous strain on local schools, hospitals, and communities in general, taking precious resources away from the poorest Americans who need them most. Illegal immigration costs our country billions and billions of dollars.”
Another controversial aspect of the aftermath following Riley’s death has been the use of rhetoric commonly surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. Phrases such as “Say her name,” which is commonly used to memorialize black men or women killed by police, have been used by Republicans in relation to Riley. At the State of the Union, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly yelled “say her name” as President Joe Biden was speaking.
“It’s a very intentional choice,” Vegter said. “By using this rhetoric, the far-right is kind of saying to Democrats ‘if you won’t use this for a white woman, then your desire for change only extends to people of color.’”
At UGA, there has been outcry from students calling for public attention to be turned away from illegal immigration. The Latino Community Fund Georgia has been monitoring potential threats and actions against immigrants in the area.
“We have been monitoring instances of folks that have been saying that they want to go hunting for immigrants,” Gilda Pedraza, executive director and founder of the group, told NBC News. “It is a damaging narrative and a very real-life threat.”
According to Vegter, one of the layers that is being ignored by those pushing an anti-immigration narrative is that of the experience of being a woman in the world. Violence against women is common, with one in three women being physically or sexually assaulted worldwide annually. By focusing on the perpetrator of the crime against Riley, the issue of violence against her and women in general is being ignored.
“Laken Riley was killed and that should be the focus,” Vegter said. “Politicizing her death in any sense is drawing away from the fact that she was a victim. While it may be a layered issue that draws a lot of attention to immigration, it remains that she was a victim and it is a tragedy.”