U.S. President Donald Trump met Monday with family members of victims of undocumented immigrants at a White House ceremony to officially designate February 22 as “National Angel Families Day,” as the Administration calls them.
The date was chosen in memory of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from the state of Georgia who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented migrant on February 22, 2024.
The young woman’s death prompted Republicans in Congress to push for the Laken Riley Act, signed into law by Trump in January 2025, a measure that allows immigration authorities to detain migrants for theft and other minor crimes before they have been convicted.
Trump, who after returning to power has redoubled his tough anti-immigration policy, charged again against the Democrats for “leaving the border open” and allowing “anyone who wanted” to enter, during his speech before signing the proclamation, surrounded by relatives of several of the deceased.
‘National Angel Families Day’ honored by Trump.
“(The deceased) were victims of politicians who put the convenience of foreign criminals before the safety of U.S. citizens and patriots,” he reiterated.
In the United States, there is no single, up-to-date official figure that establishes how many Americans are killed each year by illegal immigrants, but their impact on overall crime data is comparatively low, according to the Justice Department’s own historical data.
Research from centers such as the Cato Institute shows that the homicide conviction rate for undocumented immigrants is low and generally lower than among native-born citizens.
This ceremony takes place in a context of intense tension in the United States over the immigration policy implemented by the Trump Administration that has ended with the death of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration agents.
The Department of Homeland Security, under which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol operate, is entering its tenth day of partial shutdown, reported Agencia EFE, with no sign of an agreement in Congress between Democratic and Republican legislators to approve new funding.
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