Ben Affleck Pinned an Ugly Label On Every American Who Wants Illegal Aliens Deported

Laken Riley went out for a jog on the University of Georgia campus and never came home.

Ben Affleck sat down with Jorge Ramos and claimed illegal alien criminals were never being ignored.

Then Affleck pinned an ugly label on every American who wants illegal aliens like her killer deported.

Affleck Told Jorge Ramos Deportation Backers Are Driven By Xenophobia

Affleck went on The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos to promote Animals, his new Netflix thriller.

Ramos is the Univision anchor Donald Trump had escorted out of an Iowa press conference in 2015.

He was the perfect audience for what Affleck said next.

Affleck wrote, directed, and starred in Animals, playing a Los Angeles mayoral candidate chasing the Latino vote while his son is kidnapped.

In between plugs for the movie, Affleck turned his fire on half the country.

He said anti-immigrant politics comes down to scapegoating and pointing fingers.

Then he dropped the word.

He told Ramos that "xenophobia and anti-immigration policies have been a part of the history of the United States."

He compared the deportation push to the old pattern of one immigrant group slamming the door on the next, the Irish shutting out the Italians.

He dismissed the deportation movement as a polite cover story for uglier motives.

He even had an explanation for the Latino voters who back tougher enforcement.

In Affleck's telling, they resent people who cut the line, and politicians exploit that resentment.

It never seems to occur to him that immigrants who waited their turn simply believe the law should mean something.

And he claimed Democrats never looked the other way on illegal alien criminals.

Affleck said "the idea that like somehow those people were being ignored previously is totally false."

He conceded nobody wants criminals or rapists in the country.

He just never explained why sanctuary cities keep turning them loose.

Laken Riley's Killer Was Released Twice Before He Struck

Laken Riley's family knows exactly how false Affleck's claim is.

Border agents caught Venezuelan illegal alien Jose Ibarra crossing near El Paso in September 2022.

The Biden administration paroled him into the country and released him a day later.

The NYPD picked him up in August 2023 on a child endangerment charge.

He was released before ICE could even issue a detainer.

In February 2024, Ibarra attacked and killed Riley.

A judge sentenced him to life without parole after convicting him of malice murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault with intent to rape.

That is not a man the system was watching.

That is a man the system waved through at every single stop.

Republicans led the push for the Laken Riley Act, and Trump made it the first bill he signed in his second term.

The law forces ICE to detain illegal aliens charged with crimes like theft and burglary instead of turning them loose.

If criminals were never being ignored, Congress would never have needed to write it.

Affleck Pulled the Same Move On Bill Maher in 2014

This isn't the first time Affleck has reached for a smear to end a debate he was losing.

In October 2014, he sat at Bill Maher's table on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher while Maher and author Sam Harris talked about radical Islam.

Instead of arguing the facts, Affleck accused both men of bigotry.

He told them they were "stereotyping" and kept interrupting them.

Maher, a liberal, didn't back down then.

Millions of Americans aren't backing down now.

Twelve years later, Affleck is running the same play with a new target.

Disagree with him on Islam and you're a bigot.

Disagree with him on the border and you're a xenophobe.

By Affleck's Logic Barack Obama Was a Xenophobe Too

Affleck's argument collapses the moment you look at the Democrat Party's track record.

Barack Obama's administration removed more than 400,000 people in a single year.

Immigration activists nicknamed him the "Deporter in Chief."

By Affleck's standard, Obama's White House was a xenophobic operation.

Enforcing the border was common sense when Democrats did it.

Now that Trump is doing it, Affleck wants you to believe it's hatred.

Riley's parents don't need a lecture from a Hollywood star about what motivates Americans who want illegal alien criminals gone.

They buried their daughter.

Affleck can pin any label he wants on the rest of us.

The Americans demanding deportations aren't driven by fear of foreigners.

They're driven by the names of girls like Laken Riley.

Sources:

• Warner Todd Huston, "Watch: Ben Affleck Says Being in Favor of Deporting Illegal Aliens Is Rooted in 'Xenophobia,'" Breitbart, October 14, 2026.
• Liberty One News, "Ben Affleck Calls Support for Deporting Illegal Aliens 'Xenophobia,'" Liberty One News, October 15, 2026.
• Greg Wehner, "Lindsey Graham Says DHS Told Him Laken Riley's Alleged Murderer Was Paroled Into US Illegally," Fox News, April 16, 2024.
• Adam Shaw and Stepheny Price, "ICE Confirms Georgia Student Murder Suspect Entered US Illegally, Was Previously Arrested in NYC," Fox News, February 25, 2024.
• Blake Mauro, "Illegal Immigrant Jose Ibarra Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Murder of Laken Riley," Washington Free Beacon, November 20, 2024.
• Rich Lowry, "Ben Affleck's Islam Problem," National Review, October 7, 2014.