UGA campus murder victim Laken Riley's cause of death revealed after nursing student was found slain in field - as Republicans call for illegal Venezuelan immigrant suspect to face DEATH PENALTY

Cops investigating the murder of a University of Georgia nursing student have released her cause of death.

Laken Riley, 22, was killed by 'blunt force trauma,' police confirmed. Her body discovered in a field on the Athens campus on Thursday after she failed to return home from a run.

Illegal Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested for her murder on Friday and is now being held at the Clarke County Jail.

The 26-year-old crossed into El Paso, Texas in September 2022 but had been released from a detention center due to a lack of space, according to NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley.

Now Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene have called for Ibarra to receive the death penalty.

 UGA murder victim was killed by 'blunt force trauma' police investigating her death said

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, has been identified and charged for allegedly murdering nursing student Laken Riley, 22, at the University of Georgia in Athens

Police search a wooded area at the University of Georgia after the shock discovery Thursday

'Ibarra is an illegal alien and murdered a young woman the age of my own children. Deportation is not enough. He deserves the death penalty,' the Georgia representative said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

'You want to break in our country, ILLEGALLY, and murder one of our girls. DEATH PENALTY!' She added in another.

Representative Mike Collins also suggested that Ibarra should be killed.

'Jose Antonio Ibarra would make a great first passenger for the new Pinochet Air,' he wrote on X in an apparent reference to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who became known for throwing prisoners to their deaths out of helicopters and planes.

The phrase 'Pinochet Air' has been popular with white supremacists and the far right for several years and has spawned several memes about 'free helicopter rides' for those deemed undesirable. 

'The Venezuelan suspect in Laken Riley’s murder is one of millions of illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions. 

'This man had no business being in America, much less the UGA community to brutally murder this young American while she was on a run. 

'To put this in simpler terms: if this border was secure, and Athens not a sanctuary city, Laken Riley would be alive,' Collins added.

Riley, 22, was found dead Thursday afternoon after her roommate reported her missing, saying she had not returned from her jog

 Officials confirmed that Ibarra is not a US citizen and did not know or have any kind of relationship with Riley

 He has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another

Despite Collins' claims, several studies have indicated that undocumented individuals are statistically less likely to commit crimes.

One DOJ report from Texas in 2020 found that relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over two times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over four times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.

Georgia still has the death penalty, but has not executed anyone since 2020.

Riley's family spoke of their devastation following her murder.

'The loss is unimaginable. A beautiful girl taken away in this senseless act of violence. There are no words. Only God knows the pain and can heal our broken hearts,' cousin Denise Brown Ewing said.

Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, concealing the death of another and failure to appear for a finger printable charge.

Cops said that he did not know the victim and the crime was a 'random, solo act.'

UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a press conference Thursday that officers have searched Ibarra's apartment in Athens and evidence shows that he acted alone. 

'He did not know her at all. I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened,' Clark said. 

'The evidence is robust. It is supported by key input by the community, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were assisted by video footage from our campus security cameras network.'

The news of the murder came on the same day House Speaker Mike Johnson ripped into President Joe Biden for finally floating executive action to crack down on illegal immigration after millions of migrants entered into the US since he took office. 

Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene have called for Ibarra to receive the death penalty, stating 'deportation is not enough'

Rep Mike Collins suggested Ibarra should be killed by taking a flight on 'Pinochet Air' in a reference to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who became known for throwing prisoners to their deaths out of helicopters

GOP reps have suggested that Biden's immigration policy is to blame for the murder, which police characterized as a 'random, solo' act

Since Biden took office in 2021, over 7.2 million migrants have entered the U.S. through the southern border.

That's more people than the population of 36 states. Arizona, for example, had 7.1 million residents according to the 2020 census.

After taking office, President Biden immediately canceled various Trump-era border initiatives, including the 'Remain in Mexico' policy that required migrants claiming asylum to stay in Mexico until their hearing court date in the U.S. 

Biden also stopped construction of the U.S.-Mexico border within days of taking office.

But now, the 81-year-old president is reportedly mulling over using the Immigration and Nationality Act , which gives a president broad leeway to block entry of certain immigrants, to shut down the border if more than 8,500 try to cross in one day.