FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who led the Senate introduction of the Laken Riley Act alongside Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., hit former President Bill Clinton for failing to acknowledge during his remarks about the border crisis “that this is a conscious choice the Biden-Harris Administration has made.”
In a campaign visit to Georgia on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., Clinton invoked the February death of Laken Riley, an Augusta University nursing student who was found dead on the University of Georgia’s campus.
The suspect charged with allegedly murdering Riley, Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant, has pleaded not guilty.
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Sen. Katie Britt, right, criticized former President Bill Clinton for mentioning the border’s failure to vet illegal immigrants without mentioning the Biden-Harris administration’s actions. Laken Riley is pictured center. (Reuters/ Laken Riley Facebook)
“[Harris is] the only candidate who has actually endorsed a bill that would hold down immigration any given year to a certain point and then made sure we gave people a decent place to live, didn’t divide people from their children. And we did total vetting before people got in. Now, Trump killed the bill,” Clinton said during the campaign stop.
“You had a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn’t you? They made an ad about it. A young woman who had been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they’d all been properly vetted that probably wouldn’t have happened.”
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Former President Bill Clinton’s speech in Columbus, Georgia, on Monday heavily focused on the issue of the border. (Getty Images)
In an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, Britt said, “Laken Riley would be alive today if the Biden-Harris Administration had stronger border security and interior immigration enforcement policies in place. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have willfully, recklessly, and unlawfully allowed poorly vetted individuals, including Laken Riley’s accused murderer, to unleash havoc on American families nationwide.”
“What President Clinton refused to admit is that this is a conscious choice the Biden-Harris Administration has made,” she continued. “No one is forcing them to parole hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted individuals into communities across our country, and they could end their dangerous, unprecedented abuse of immigration parole today if they wanted to.”
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Introduced by Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., right, and Ted Budd, R-N.C., the bill serves as the Senate companion to H.R. 7511, which was originally introduced in the House by Georgia GOP Rep. Mike Collins. (Getty Images, Laken Riley/Facebook)
Britt also slammed the extensive executive actions by the administration that she said, “weakened border security and immigration enforcement.”
“They suspended deportations, halted construction of the border wall, and announced a plan to give amnesty to millions. That made it crystal clear from the start of their tenure that their goal was mass migration – not the safety and security of the American people.”
The Alabama senator criticized her Democrat counterparts in the Senate for blocking “the commonsense, bipartisan Laken Riley Act and instead defend[ing] the Biden-Harris mass migration agenda – the very agenda that senselessly enabled the murders of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, and countless others.”
“I’m going to continue fighting to pass this important legislation and return President Trump to the White House, so he can restore the strong border policies that were working under his Administration.”
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Former President Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he speaks with Republican Senator Katie Britt from Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium for a football game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs on Sep 28, 2024. (Gary Cosby Jr/Imagn Images)
Britt and Budd’s measure would require illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting to be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Further, the detainment of said illegal immigrants would be mandated until removal from the country can be coordinated.
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The bill would also establish standing for states to bring civil action against federal officials that do not enforce immigration law or violate the law.
The measure is co-sponsored by nearly every member of the Senate Republican conference and one Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who joined in the summer after initially opposing a modified version of the bill being included in a several bill appropriations package earlier in the year.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.