Former President Bill Clinton said in a speech Monday that the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley would not have happened if the alleged killer, an illegal immigrant, had been properly investigated.
While campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in the Peach State, Clinton accused her rival, former President Donald Trump, of blocking negotiations on a bipartisan border agreement in Congress because he wanted it to be a campaign issue.
He thinks Riley's death could have been prevented if Congress had been able to reach a deal — even though the alleged killer had already been cleared.
“He's the only candidate who actually supported a bill that would freeze immigration up to a certain point in any given year and then make sure that we give people a decent place to live, we don't separate people from their children. . Before. Now, Trump has killed the project,” Clinton said.
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The border issue featured prominently in former President Bill Clinton's speech in Columbus, Georgia, on Monday. (Getty Images)
“You had a case in Georgia not long ago, didn't you? They made an announcement about this, a young girl who was killed by an immigrant. Yes, well, it probably wouldn't have happened if they had been properly vetted.
“And we don’t have enough children in America to support our population, so we need immigrants with proven ability to work – that won’t be a problem,” he added.
Meanwhile, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has publicly confirmed that people who attempt to cross the border illegally are tested and screened.
As Fox News Digital previously stated, the alleged killer was confronted by CBP on September 8, 2022 after entering El Paso and was “released pending parole and further processing.”
A bilateral border agreement also failed earlier this year — years after the Venezuelan citizen accused of killing Riley entered the country, still under the scanner of the Biden administration.
During a second stop in Georgia, Clinton praised the current administration's handling of the border and illegal immigration at a campaign stop. in Georgia Monday
“Over the last three years, the Biden-Harris administration has been increasingly tough, trying to control the border. And illegal crossings have decreased every year for three years. “Clinton said.
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Clinton is on an outreach trip through rural America for the Harris-Walz campaign (White House)
It's notable that the former president's speech focused primarily on the border with Georgia, a state President Biden is in. won by less than 1% in 2020.
The issue of illegal border crossings has become a political lightning rod this election cycle. Democrats in tight races — both for the presidency and also for congressional and local positions — are underscoring their support for tougher border security measures as Americans across the country strain their local infrastructure due to to the influx of people seeking asylum in the United States.
But Republicans have long criticized Democrats' handling of border security, citing a record number of border crossings since Biden took office. They continued to do so throughout the campaign, arguing that Harris had failed to live up to her unofficial title of “border czar.”
Despite several high-profile examples of media use, Clinton accused Republicans of giving Harris the designation — which she called a mistake.
Clinton said: “They want to attack Kamala Harris and blame her for everything they can't make happen. Since they claim she was a ‘frontier czar,’ that’s not her job.”
“His job was to go to these other countries that were sending a lot of people to us and try to bring them in, enroll them in a legal process while they are in the country so they don't get smuggled, show them. border, it has to be taken care of in one way or another, and then we will run the risk of people coming here who have not been properly examined.”
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Clinton also accused former President Trump of not really wanting to fix the border.
He also accused former President Trump of working to derail a bipartisan border agreement that failed in the Senate and that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called “dead on arrival” in the House.
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“He said, 'Oh my God, we can't fix the border. What am I going to do with a TV ad? Who am I going to demonize every day? I don't get into politics to solve problems. I go This creates problems and blames other people for doing this,'” Clinton said.
Fox News reached out to the Trump campaign for digital feedback.
The former president is campaigning in rural America for Harris' 2024 candidacy.
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