WASHINGTON, Sept 30 — Facing tough midterm US elections, the Republican Party is focusing on its core topics of crime and immigration — and a key part of its messaging is emotional testimony from so-called “Angel Families”.
These Americans are relatives of people killed allegedly by illegal or undocumented migrants, and President Donald Trump’s party hopes their stories tap into voter concerns ahead of the November 3 vote.
Elizabeth Carter lost her son and daughter-in-law in a road crash a year ago in Oregon. The driver charged with homicide, Rajinder Kumar, is an undocumented Indian immigrant who obtained a truck driver’s license in California.
Kumar crossed the Mexico-US border illegally in 2022 and was detained. He was released in California pending a hearing, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After the crash, a fundraising drive allowed him to post bail and be released pending trial, infuriating the Carter family.
“We’re rolling the dice with our children,” Carter declared at a House of Representatives hearing.
Using their congressional majority, Republicans have held five legislative hearings to give a voice to Angel Families, an initiative that began taking shape in Texas in 2009.
In another case, Sheridan Gorman was 18 this March when she went for a nighttime walk with friends along Lake Michigan near Chicago.
An undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, Jose Medina, is accused of shooting her in the back as she ran from him.
Gorman died, and her mother Jessica’s harrowing testimony two months ago reverberated inside and outside Congress.
“The fact that American safety is a partisan issue blows my mind. It should be everyone’s issue,” the mother told AFP at a Justice Department event honoring Angel Families.
‘A fair trial’
The Gorman family and relatives of hundreds of other victims have decided to campaign to change sanctuary state laws.
Oregon, like California, is a sanctuary state, meaning its laws limit cooperation with ICE on handing over undocumented immigrants or information about them.
Kumar was eventually detained by ICE and is awaiting deportation, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told AFP, but Elizabeth Carter wants him to face justice first.
“My hope is that Mr Kumar gets a fair trial,” she told AFP. “Billy and Jenny, my son and daughter-in-law, deserve their day in court.”
Carter said she had never thought of illegal immigration as a problem for herself or her family.
“I was blissfully ignorant. I raised my children to care about their community, to volunteer,” she said.
“I was incredibly unaware that allowing them in the country means that sometimes they’re doing jobs they’re not qualified for, don’t have the proper training for, and that puts American lives at risk.”
The immigration debate has grown increasingly bitter in the US, with ICE accusing states of failing to hand over undocumented immigrants released from jail.
ICE raids across the country have also led to deaths, and the hearings in Congress have been tense, particularly when relatives on either side of the immigration drama take part.
Some Democratic lawmakers consider the five hearings on sanctuary states that often feature Angel Families to be excessive. They believe ICE is out of control.
“When we raise legitimate concerns about the thuggish way that the Trump administration is approaching immigration enforcement, Republicans try to blame everything on sanctuary jurisdictions,” Democrat Pramila Jayapal said during a September hearing.
Democrats “are not worried about the citizens of the US who are being killed. They are producing their phony records and biased records, blaming ICE, blaming Trump. It’s unbelievable,” Anatoly Varfolomeev, another father who has testified, told AFP.
His 19-year-old daughter Anya died in a 2021 road accident. The driver charged in the case was in the country illegally and was drunk at the time of the crash.
The driver had previously been convicted of other crimes in the US in 2014. He was deported twice but managed to return. — AFP
