Killing of Laken Riley is now front and center of US immigration debate and 2024 presidential race

By JEFF MARTIN
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — With an unscripted clash between President Joe Biden and a Georgia congresswoman at Thursday night’s State of the Union speech, the killing of a Georgia nursing student was further cemented as a political rallying point in the 2024 race for president. Twenty-two-year-old Laken Riley has become the face of immigration reform for many conservatives in the days since she was killed while jogging in a park on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22. At the State of the Union address, Biden held up a pin with Riley’s name on it as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted from the gallery: “Say her name!”