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Here's What an Immigration Activist Said This Week That Set Josh Hawley Off

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  January 19, 2025 6:30 AM

Last Thursday, activist Adam Isaacson was invited to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the Remain in Mexico program, where illegal alien crime inevitably came up. 

It’s a subject where Isaacson should’ve chosen his words more carefully because Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) tore him to shreds for downplaying illegal alien crime. Hawley later showed pictures of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an illegal alien in February of 2024, which led to the pending federal immigration law that bears her name. What set Hawley off was Isaccson’s take that enforcing immigration laws and detaining illegal aliens “could do a lot of harm” (via Fox News): 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., drilled into a migrant rights activist in a heated moment during a Senate hearing on the "Remain in Mexico" policy on Thursday for what he said amounted to downplaying the murder of Laken Riley and for saying migrant crime is "not an actual issue." 

"In March of 2024, you wrote: ‘The murder of a nursing student in Georgia has a lot of people on the right talking about migrant crime like it's an actual issue,’" said Hawley. 

[…] 

"Here's Laken Riley," said Hawley as her picture was posted behind him. "Her murder, her horrific murder at the hands of this illegal migrant who was also unlawfully paroled in the United States. [Is] her death not an actual issue?" 

[…] 

"I didn’t say that Laken Riley’s death was not an actual issue, I said that migrant crime is not an actual issue," said Isacson. "Migrant crime is much less of an issue than U.S. citizen-committed crime." 

To which Hawley answered, "[Riley] is dead because of migrant crime." 

Hawley also pointed to the case of a St. Louis-area 12-year-old named Travis Wolfe who was killed in a car crash involving an illegal immigrant. 

"I happen to think that their violent murders are actual issues," he said. "And the fact that you would say otherwise, sit here and advise the Senate that the Laken Riley Act is a bad idea, that the whole thing is not an actual issue, it’s all just, what, made up? I think [it] is outrageous. I think it's absolutely outrageous."

I mean, this is a beatdown: