White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday blasted elitist celebrities’ demonization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, emphasizing there was no Hollywood outcry when Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray were murdered.
Leavitt’s comments came during a press gaggle outside the West Wing when a reporter asked about Bad Bunny’s “ICE Out” comments at the Grammys.
“It’s very ironic and, frankly, sad to see celebrities who live in gated communities with private security, with millions of dollars to spend protecting themselves, trying to just demonize, again, law enforcement, public servants who work for the United States government to enforce our nation’s laws,” Leavitt said.
“You didn’t hear this same type of uproar from celebrities in Hollywood when the previous administration allowed an invasion of our nation’s borders and allowed innocent women and girls like Jocelyn Nungaray and Laken Riley to be killed, and raped, and murdered at the hands of people who should have never been in our country in the first place,” she added.
Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra murdered Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, in February 2024. Riley had gone for a jog around the University of Georgia campus in Athens when she was attacked. Ibarra was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is currently seeking a new trial.
Twelve-year-old Nungaray was murdered in Houston after being lured under a bridge and assaulted in June 2024, prosecutors said. Her alleged killers, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Pena, alleged Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members, are charged with capital murder in the case.
“Now you have law enforcement who are simply trying to do their jobs to remove violent predators like those who took the lives of innocent Americans,” Leavitt said Tuesday.
“There was no uproar from Hollywood and the elitist crowd at the Grammys then, but there is now, and I think that speaks to the unfortunate irony that we’re seeing in Hollywood,” she added.
