The below was transcribed by Rev.com from Gov. Kemp’s presentation to the Athens-Clarke County “Pancakes and Policy” event on Feb 26, 2024. Video here.
GA Gov Brian Kemp:
“…Michael and appreciate you taking a second tour of duty, um, as chamber president this year, and I certainly want to thank David as the rest of the team for having Marty and I this morning. Uh, I’m glad to be a member of the Athens Clark County Chamber of Commerce, appreciate what you guys are doing every day to plug for small businesses in this community and a lot of other great pieces of the fabric of the Athens, Georgia community.
Uh, like Michael said, our hearts are breaking this morning for the family of Laken Riley. I had the honor of speaking to her parents over the weekend and though they are bearing the pain that no parent should ever endure in having to plan for burying their child, they’re thankful for our prayers and our ongoing justice to see Lee- Laken’s killer brought to justice.
Marty and I will continue to keep their family, their friends and the university community in our thoughts and prayers. This community, all of Georgia, and the entire country have been rocked by this inexcusable and avoidable murder. Laken’s life should not have ended so soon and we need to demand justice for what happened to her. She deserves justice, her family deserves justice, and we need justice on a national level to prevent this type of thing from happening again.
Laken’s death is a direct result of failed policies on the federal level and an unwillingness by this White House to secure the southern border. We need to demand better from this administration, and that’s something that I’ve been doing since I’ve taken office, along with other governors across the country. And we’ve renewed that call multiple times, including again this weekend when I sent a letter to the president demanding more information on the illegal immigrants in our country, where they are and if they’ve broken any of our laws. Because of the president’s failures, we don’t know all that we should, but we do know this, more than eight and a half million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Biden took office.
In November of last year alone, over 1700 pounds of Fentanyl were seized at the southern border. Nearly 16,000 pounds of meth. 169 people on the terror watch list were encountered at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, setting an all-time record. Those drugs, weapons and dangerous criminals that aren’t stopped at the border head to other states, just like ours. In fact, there was a 55% increase in cases involving Fentanyl seizures here in Georgia by the GBI between 2022 and 2023. And that doesn’t even include all the seizures by local law enforcement.
It is an understatement to say that this is a major crisis, and because of the White House’s failures, every state, as I’ve said repeatedly, is now a border state, and Laken Riley’s murder’s just the latest proof of that. Just yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that her killer was in the country illegally, that he had been arrested in 2022 and was paroled and released back onto our streets. He was then arrested again last year in New York for trying to hurt a child, and other charges. That is a failure of our system on multiple levels and at multiple times, and it has res- resulted in a young woman’s death. That is inexcusable. And in the absence of any real effort by the Biden Administration to step up and address this crisis, as they continue to ignore the calls for meaningful policy change that governors like me have made for well over two years, I have committed further resources to help and secure the southern border and keeping our citizens safe.
We already have the longest continuous presence of state guardsmen stationed on the border of any state, going back to when I first took office. Earlier this month, following my fifth trip to the southern border, I announced that we would send more troops to Texas in building, to help in building a command center on the border of, with Mexico. And we’re already putting more and more resources into public safety, including to pay for state law enforcement to retain and attract talented men and women who will keep our streets safe.
I want to thank the General Assembly, I know, uh, a bunch of the local delegation is here this morning, for giving final passage to the Peace Officer Loan Repayment legislation we introduced last year. All of these measures and more are designed with the same goal, to keep Georgians like you safe, to keep Georgians’ neighborhoods safe, to keep our schools safe, and to keep our businesses safe, because everyone should feel secure in their local community. And as we further strengthen the places we call home, we will continue to build on great opportunities here in our state, and I know that’s what you all at the Chamber are doing every single day and we appreciate so much your partnership with us. Those efforts have brought 177 projects, over 20,300 new jobs and $13.4 billion in investment to just this region of Georgia since I first took office.
