White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued on Thursday that the Biden administration had "done the work" to secure the southern border in response to a question about the murder of Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant in Georgia.
CNN host John Berman said some Americans were concerned about "crimes that are allegedly being committed by migrants who are in the country illegally."
Berman asked Jean-Pierre to respond to Republican accusations against Biden and his border policies, specifically Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO., who said, "these deaths are on him."
After offering condolences to Riley's family she said we needed to make sure that it didn't happen again after "whoever is found guilty." She then turned it back to Republicans and said, "We have done the work to make sure we're dealing with a broken immigration system. The Republicans have gotten in the way. They have gotten in the way."
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"And so look, this is a serious matter, that‘s why the president is going to the border. The president was at the border a year ago in El Paso, visiting the border back in January 2023. He put a comprehensive, a comprehensive immigration policy on day one," she continued during her media interview.
The suspect charged in Riley's murder, Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was granted border "parole," which allows non-citizens to temporarily enter the country due to an emergency or humanitarian reason, authorities have said. Ibarra soon made his way up to New York City, where he was arrested in August and "charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation," according to ICE.
Biden is expected to visit the border on Thursday, the same day former President Trump is scheduled to go.
The president is expected to travel to Brownsville, Texas, to meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement and local leaders, according to a White House official.
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Jean-Pierre also argued that Biden's border visit on Thursday was "not about politics" during the interview.
Berman asked her what specifically would be improved by Biden's visit.
"The president said this and he did say this, that once Republicans rejected that bipartisan deal that came out of the Senate, that would have dealt with the border challenges, that would have dealt with some of the issues we're seeing with immigration, let’s not forget that bipartisan bill was supported by the border patrol union, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in this political time, it is unreal, unheard of to see that type of support for a bipartisan bill," she said.
"And when they rejected it, Republicans rejected it again because of, because of the former president, the president said, he‘s going to take it directly to the American people. The American people are going to hear from him about what happened about how they put, Republicans put politics, they put politics ahead of dealing with issues that matter," she continued.
Jean-Pierre added that Biden was going to hear from people directly effected by the border crisis, including the Republican mayor of Brownsville.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.
