President Joe Biden finally “said her name” at the State of the Union address on Thursday night before a packed joint session of Congress.
The president was challenged to say her name during his speech by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Congresswoman from Georgia.
Joe Biden did say Laken Riley’s name. Or at least he tried to. He appears to have butchered her first name, by saying “Lincoln.” Twice. (This is according to automated transcription.)
“I know you know how to read,” Biden railed.” I believe that given the opportunity for a majority in the House and Senate would endorse the bill as well. The majority right now. But unfortunately, politics has derailed this bill so far. I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand. They block the bill. He feels a political win. He viewed it as be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him. It’s not about me. I’d be a winner. Not really.”
Then, MTG spoke up and derailed his scattershot train of thought.
“Lincoln… Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” he went on. “That’s right! But how many of thousands of people being killed by legals to where parents… I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand.”
“But look, if we change the dynamic at the border, people pay,” he continued. “People pay these smugglers 8,000 bucks to get across the border because they know if they get by, get by and let into the country, it’s six to eight years before they have a hearing, and it’s worth taking the chance of the 8,000 bucks. But if it’s only six months, six weeks, the idea is highly unlikely that people will pay that money and go all that way knowing that they’ll be able to be kicked out quickly.”
Joe Biden has the authority as commander-in-chief to shut down the border without an act of Congress. His administration has issued dozens of executive actions that have made it easier for illegal immigrants to make it into the country.
There have been an estimated seven million illegal migrants who have come into the country on Biden’s watch. One of them killed Laken Hope Riley.
The House passed a bill Thursday that would target illegal migrants in the U.S. who have committed certain crimes, naming the legislation in memory of the late nursing student Laken Hope Riley.
Riley, aged 22, was killed on Feb. 22 after being allegedly attacked while running in a forested area near the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, with the suspect arrested and charged with her murder, Jose Antonio Ibarra, being a Venezuelan national who allegedly entered the United States illegally and was released after being initially detained. The Laken Riley Act would require the federal government to detain foreign nationals who commit “burglary, theft, larceny, or [a] shoplifting offense” as well as grant states to sue the federal government for non-enforcement of certain aspects of immigration law, and passed the House by a vote of 251 yeas to 170 nays.
“It should pass the Senate. That doesn’t mean it will or it would, but it should. This is common sense legislation. This is good legislation, and this can help our local law enforcement so I would hope that the Senate would look at it from that standpoint,” Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, the bill’s sponsor, who represents the district where Riley died, told the DCNF. “There’s nothing wrong with this bill. There’s nothing I could see that they could point at and say ‘That’s wrong,’ with this bill. And if we can pass this, we should pass it. It’s got a good chance of helping save a life.”
