Georgia Lawmakers Approve Tougher Rules on Immigration After Student’s Killing

Georgia lawmakers voted on Thursday to tighten the state’s already strict immigration laws in response to the killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, whose death became ensnared in the broader fight over immigration policy after a man from Venezuela who entered the country illegally was charged with her murder.

In the frenzied final hours of the legislative session, the state’s House of Representatives gave final approval to a measure that would require local law enforcement agencies to scrutinize the immigration status of people in their custody and to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The legislation was the result of a vow from Republican lawmakers to crack down after Ms. Riley’s body was found last month in a wooded area on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Her death rattled the community that is the home of the state’s flagship university, roughly 70 miles from Atlanta.

The case quickly reverberated beyond Georgia, with Republicans arguing that her killing exemplified a failure by President Biden to adequately respond to an influx of migrants.

Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican, denounced “an unwillingness by this White House to secure the southern border.” Ms. Riley’s death was also invoked during the State of the Union as President Biden responded to heckling from the Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” Mr. Biden said, veering from his script — a statement that prompted a backlash from liberal Democrats and immigration advocates, particularly over his use of the term “illegal,” which they condemned as a dehumanizing pejorative.