Food delivery companies Uber Eats and DoorDash emphatically denied any association with Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who came across the southern border illegally and was arrested last week as a suspect in the murder of University of Georgia student Laken Riley.
“We don’t have a record of the suspect or his brother on our platform,” a DoorDash representative said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “We don’t have an account associated with either of them.”
A Monday report from the New York Post claimed that Ibarra’s wife, Layling Franco, said he had been employed by DoorDash, Uber Eats, and a local restaurant when he was arrested in August 2023 in New York City.
“Based on the information available, this individual is not a driver/courier on the Uber platform,” an Uber spokesperson wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
“We saw the report in the New York Post,” a DoorDash representative said in a phone call. “Haven’t seen how that was confirmed. We spoke with local police down in Athens, and they weren’t aware of that report. To be honest, it’s unconfirmed at this stage. … We haven’t heard directly, you know, what the source is. It’s just sort of been reported.”
Ibarra allegedly crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally with Franco and the couple’s 5-year-old child on Sept. 8, 2023.
Ibarra would have been ineligible to work for DoorDash in Georgia or New York because he did not have a Social Security number, according to the company. A Social Security number is required to undergo the company’s mandatory background check upon hiring. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents have this type of government document. Immigrants, including those who legally travel to the U.S. on visas, do not receive SSNs.
“Every single person has to go through a background check,” the DoorDash representative said. “Every single person has to provide identity verification. So right off the bat, if you can’t pass our background check and you can’t provide valid government ID, you can’t be on the platform. So huge numbers of people are ineligible to apply.”
Asked if Ibarra may have used a valid employee’s account to deliver food under a different identity, DoorDash said it had significant protocols in place to prevent and interrupt account sharing.
“We see rare instances of it, but we have all these measures in place to combat it,” the DoorDash representative said. “We have technology that we use that identify signals that indicates potential account sharing. And we basically get rid of them. We have no tolerance for account sharing. We have very, very rigorous identity screening. It’s pretty robust.”
DoorDash, in particular, tracks signals from delivery employees, including what device they use to verify their identity, where they do so, and where they are supposed to be delivering versus their actual location, according to the company. Signals are frequently checked, not just when starting out as an employee.
Ibarra was arrested last Friday and charged with malice and felony murder, aggravated battery, kidnapping, and concealing the death of another, among other things, for the death of Riley, 22.
Riley had been jogging on campus when she was believed to have been attacked and killed. Her body was recovered Thursday.
