Illegal migrant accused of killing Laken Riley took free Biden admin flight to Georgia — where he ‘hunted her down’
The migrant Tren de Aragua gang member accused of killing Georgia coed Laken Riley ended up in the Peach State thanks to a free flight from the Biden administration, according to a court witness and sources.
Suspected fiend Jose Ibarra, 26, enjoyed the taxpayer-funded flight from Kennedy Airport in Queens to Atlanta, Ga., in September 2023, New York City sources said.
The move — paid for with federal money under the Biden-Harris administration — occurred fewer than six months before the illegal migrant allegedly hunted down and killed Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, in Athens during a sex attack gone horribly awry.
Rosebeli Flores-Bello, an ex-roommate of Ibarra, indicated on the stand at his murder trial in Athens on Monday that she, Ibarra and an unknown number of others flew to Georgia after requesting a free flight while at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan.
The Roosevelt had been established as a temporary migrant in-take center by the city, which was drowning in waves of migrants flooding the Big Apple daily thanks to lax Biden-Harris border security.
To try to help ease the crisis, New York City set up a so-called “reticketing center” in October 2023 that provided migrants with federally funded one-way plane tickets anywhere in the world.
“In Manhattan, we requested for a humanitarian flight to come here to Atlanta,” Flores-Bello testified through an interpreter.
A photograph of Ibarra’s airline boarding pass shown briefly in court revealed he took the flight Sept. 28, 2023.
City Hall declined comment to The Post on Monday.
But a city source confirmed Ibarra’s taxpayer-funded flight.
A City Hall rep said in a statement, “What happened to Laken Riley is a gut-wrenching tragedy and we are hopeful her suspected killer is held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
“Mayor Adams has been abundantly clear that we need to fix our broken immigration system. Cities should never have had to carry the cost and burden of this national humanitarian crisis,’’ the representative said.
“Our reticketing system is one tool in our very limited toolbox as a city that helps migrants take the next step out of our shelter system.’’
In her testimony, Flores-Bello said she and Ibarra decided to look into moving to Georgia because the suspect’s brother, Diego, who had apparently already relocated there, called the suspected killer “constantly” to let him know there were plentiful job opportunities down south.”
John Feere, who served as chief of staff in ICE during the first Trump administration and worked then briefly under Tom Homan, who is returning as Trump’s border czar, told The Post on Monday that the use of federal funds to move migrants from one part of the country to another is “pretty shadowy.
“There are incalculable costs of victimization of American citizens,’’ he said, referring to Riley’s death.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter border policies,said Biden officials “want it to sound like a humanitarian program.”
“Ultimately we’re all paying for it,” she said.
Many shocking and gut-wrenching revelations about the savage Feb. 22 slaying have come out over the course of the bench trial in Athens.
Last week, prosecutors said Riley “fought for her life” for a staggering 18 minutes, scratching up Ibarra’s neck and wrists before he allegedly smashed her head with a rock and asphyxiated her when she resisted his sexual attack.
