Illegal migrant and alleged Tren de Aragua gang member Jose Ibarra has been accused of murdering nursing student Laken Riley near her Georgia home earlier this year.

A witness at Ibarra's trial testified this week that the Biden administration paid for Ibarra to travel from New York to Atlanta just months before Riley was killed. 

Government offered free flights to illegal migrants

According to the New York Post, that information was revealed on Monday by Rosebeli Flores-Bello, who was once Ibarra's roommate.

Flores-Bello indicated that she was staying at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan when she and Ibarra as well as an unknown number of other migrants requested a free flight from New York to Georgia.

"In Manhattan, we requested for a humanitarian flight to come here to Atlanta," Flores-Bello was quoted as telling jurors through an interpreter.

The Post noted that New York City began offering free flights with help from the federal government in order to reduce its migrant population.

Source confirmed that Ibarra was among those given a free plane ticket

While New York's City Hall initially declined to comment on Flores-Bello's testimony, a source confirmed to the newspaper that Ibarra did indeed receive one of taxpayer-funded flights.

"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," a New York City spokesperson later said in a statement.

"Mayor Adams has been abundantly clear that we need to fix our broken immigration system," the representative asserted.

"Cities should never have had to carry the cost and burden of this national humanitarian crisis," the statement went on to declare.

Bill Clinton: Riley "probably" would be alive if Ibarra been "properly vetted"

Riley's was murder prominently feature during this year's election campaign, including one awkward moment in which former President Bill Clinton admitted that her death "probably wouldn't have happened" had Ibarra been "properly vetted."

Bill Clinton: Laken Riley's death "probably wouldn't have happened" if the border had been secured by Kamala Harris.

He said this while campaigning FOR her. Lmfaopic.twitter.com/T5I65qpstm

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 14, 2024

The Hill reported that the Trump campaign was quick to seize upon Clinton's remarks and include them in an advertisement.

Angel Ureña serves as a spokeswoman for Clinton, and in a statement provided to The Hill, she accused the Trump campaign of having "disingenuously" taken former President Clinton's remarks "out of context."