The wife of Jose Antonio Ibarra, the 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela who police arrested Friday for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, at the University of Georgia (UGA) campus, revealed in a Saturday interview that the couple originally married with the goal of furthering their cases for asylum in the United States.
Layling Franco told the New York Post on Saturday that she and Jose Ibarra (pictured above) entered the United States illegally through El Paso with her five-year-old son on September 8, 2022. Franco said the alleged killer made money by delivering food for Uber Eats, DoorDash and a local restaurant.
Jose Ibarra’s wife told the outlet the couple “got married so we could join our asylum cases,” and have “known each other our entire lives.” She reportedly claimed Jose Ibarra was not “aggressive” person and they did not physically fight when together.
Immigration experts say the end of the Remain in Mexico policy, enacted under former President Donald Trump and rescinded by President Joe Biden, has led to a sharp increase in asylum cases by individuals who enter the country illegally and then are released into the United States while they await a distant court date to adjudicate the asylum claims.
