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By Natalie Venegas
Weekend Reporter
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Following the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba said on Sunday that concerns over President Joe Biden facing legal action is "not always the answer."
Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Riley in Athens, Georgia. On Friday, UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark said Ibarra was not a U.S. citizen, adding, "Right now, I don't know his full status."
However, amid investigations into Riley's death, a host of Republicans are blaming Biden as tensions at the southern border continue to grow.
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The president continues to face bipartisan criticism over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border as the country continues to experience a high number of migrant border crossings. There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
Republicans say the uptick in migrants is a direct result of Biden's border policies, which they argue incentivize illegal immigration. Other experts have said other factors including political and financial instability in some Central American countries drive migration to the U.S.
In an interview with Newsmax on Sunday, Habba was asked by host Lidia Curanaj if Biden could be sued over Riley's death and if the president has "blood on his hands."
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In response, while Habba said she believes Biden bears the responsibility, she also believes that the focus should be on securing the border and that lawsuits "are not always the answer."
"Lawsuits and litigation, you know, unfortunately, are not always the answer. They take time unless you're Trump. They take time. And I think that it's more important, frankly, that we get our borders secure than waste time trying to get money and litigious," Habba said.
Habba continued to explain her stance by pointing towards the presidential immunity claim, a legal move that is currently being claimed in Trump's Washington, D.C., election interference case.
"You know, it's a tough question for me to answer because I'm an attorney for a former president and presidents have immunities that need to be preserved. And I truly do believe that. I think that presidents need to have immunity so that they can carry out their duties. And I mean, all presidents," Habba added.
Newsweek has reached out to Habba's office and the White House via email for comment.
A federal appeals court ruled earlier this month that Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution, allowing special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump on the four criminal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In August 2023, Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The former president has pled not guilty and has said the case against him is politically motivated.
However, Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, has said he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which means the trial, which has already been delayed from its original March 4, 2024, date, could be put back even further pending the Court's decision.
Meanwhile, Habba's comments come after Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican from Athens, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Biden and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were responsible for Riley's death. He also blamed Athens' sanctuary city status.
"The blood of Laken Riley is on the hands of Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the government of Athens-Clarke County," Collins posted on X. "The Venezuelan suspect in Laken Riley's murder is one of millions of illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions. This man had no business being in America, much less the UGA community to brutally murder this young American while she was on a run."
However, Georgia state senator Jason Esteves, a Democrat, countered Republicans with a post on X that stated, "Laken Riley's family deserves space to grieve without being used for cheap political points. Those who bring up border security should take that up with [Donald] Trump, who recently whipped Republicans in DC into shelving a bipartisan border security bill."
Correction: 3/3/24, 10:01 a.m. ET: This article was updated with the correct spelling of Newsmax host, Lidia Curanaj.
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