September 3 :
As a temporary monument to the life of nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed while jogging alongside a tranquil lake in southern Georgia, USA, a pile of sneakers stands along the shore. As a result of Riley's death—which authorities say was caused by a 26-year-old Venezuelan immigrant—the immigration debate has heated up in Georgia, a state that might decide the US presidential election in November.

The murder took place in Athens, a city about 90 minutes east of Atlanta, and a 23-year-old college student named Emma Turner expressed her fear of the unknown as a cause for personal fear. According to investigators, 22-year-old Riley suffered from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head; his body was discovered in a forested area next to a lake on the University of Georgia campus.

The Augusta University student Riley was the victim of murder, aggravated assault, and rape plot charges. While hundreds gathered for a vigil in her honor, the nation's polarizing immigration issue inevitably drew attention to Riley's passing.

According to Turner, the murder of Riley should not be viewed through the prism of immigration. She spoke of the suspect by name and stated, "We need to look at him as an individual, as a person." "America was founded on the basis of freedom for people to come."

If you ask Will Schlief, though, the policy that let him enter the nation is the one that's flawed. "The man who murdered her, he crossed the border," the University of Georgia physics major and 20-year-old student stated. This is obviously a political matter. According to Schlief, the suspect was freed from an overcrowded Texas prison center "because there are so many people coming across," which directly impacts his November vote.

Candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties are vying for support in Georgia, a state that Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in 2016 by just 12,000 votes. The Republican presidential candidate, Trump, who included a wall along the Mexican border in his initial run for president, made special notice of Riley and her parents at the July party convention.

Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was murdered in June and her body was found strangled and buried in a stream near Houston, was one of several murders that Republicans have highlighted as being caused by immigrant families. On murder charges, two migrants from Venezuela are currently facing the legal system.

In his campaign rallies, Trump accuses Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris of releasing "hundreds of thousands" of illegal immigrants to "invade" the US, calling them "killers, drug dealers and human traffickers." (Harris, 2018). Research shows that immigrants do not commit more crimes than native-born Americans.

Despite this, Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proceeded to yell out "Say her name!" in reference to Riley during March's annual State of the Union speech by President Joe Biden. The Biden administration has had challenges in addressing immigration, and the Democratic Party is attempting to strike a balance between being stricter on migrants and reforming the country's ineffective immigration system.

One of the reasons you should vote for Donald Trump is because Joe Biden is not defending the country, according to Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, who told AFP that Republicans used Riley's death to support their candidate.

According to him, Republicans are attempting to demonize immigration as a problem that extends beyond the borders. Republican Athens mayor Kelly Girtz has spoken out against the politics of Riley's murder, stating that the city of 130,000 has "a lot of trauma" due to the high concentration of college students (about one-third of the population). Unfortunately, Girtz was not surprised "that it was going to be weaponized" because of Trump's statements.

The politicization, according to Girtz, who cited the role of social media in spreading the story, appeared to be more of an external phenomenon. Residents of Athens from Latin America expressed fear to him that they would be targeted because of their ethnicity, he claimed.

Middle school teacher Kim Willingham, originally from Athens, believes that these high-profile cases divert attention away from legitimate issues. She informed him, "I just be feeling like sometimes the locals get left behind." We have a lot of gang violence in Athens, where a lot of young people die, but no one seems to care. Williamingham sees it as nothing more than a political opportunity to voice his concerns about immigration in the hopes of garnering support.

Student's Murder by Undocumented Migrant Fuels Immigration Debate in Georgia