Laken Riley’s killer took taxpayer-funded flight

Topline: Jose Ibarra, the man convicted of killing Augusta University student Laken Riley, was only in Georgia because taxpayers funded his free plane ride out of New York, according to multiple reports from his trial in November.

Key facts: New York City opened “reticketing centers” last year to give immigrants free one-way plane or bus tickets as the city tries to resolve its migrant crisis.

As of July, the program had spent $13.8 million on 47,000 tickets to send migrants to Texas, Illinois, Florida and more to reduce the burden for New York, per FOX News.

A city spokesperson told FOX, “Whenever they have a desire where they want to go back to somewhere else, we buy their tickets.”

The program made headlines once again during Ibarra’s trial. His roommate testified that he had received a free “humanitarian flight” ticket from New York to Atlanta in October 2023. It’s unclear how much the plane ticket cost taxpayers.

Riley was murdered four months later in nearby Athens, Georgia.

Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally from Venezuela via El Paso, Texas in 2022 and was then bussed to New York. Texas has spent $221 million bussing migrants out of the state, according to the Washington Examiner.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: Atlanta’s migrant crisis has worsened to become one of the most expensive in the country. The city received $10.8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program this summer to support communities receiving migrants from the border — more than any city besides border states or New York.

The program dispersed $600 million nationwide, just months before FEMA’s financial challenges affected its response to Hurricane Helene and other recent storms.

Summary: The nation’s migrant crisis is expensive enough without taxpayers needing to worry about abetting criminals.

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