Today on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Tom Bevan moderates a discussion with Joe Abraham, whose daughter Katie was killed in a car wreck caused by an illegal alien on Jan. 19, 2025, in Urbana, Illinois. “It’s so devastating. It’s so gut-wrenching. It’s something no one should ever have to go through,” Abraham said. “It’s a battle every day.” “And it was something completely avoidable,” he said. “She’s in the back seat at a stoplight. Eighty miles an hour, they just rammed right into the back, and she died on the scene.” “A lot of the frustrations I have watching the few states that battle ICE and put out all this misinformation and this utter nonsense – there’s no two-sided compassion here, right? It’s only this one side,” Abraham said. He said he has met other “angel families” through border-related advocacy groups and argues victims like his daughter are treated as politically inconvenient. “My story and Katie’s are inconvenient. Illinois would love to erase us.” Abraham said he decided to speak out after attending a June 12, 2025, Oversight hearing on sanctuary policies, where he felt Illinois leaders ignored his family. He says Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz gave him a hug, but Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wouldn’t give him the time of day. “I’m sitting 10 feet away from Gov. Pritzker, and what I wanted was just an acknowledgement,” he said. “Jan Schakowsky walking by – no one wanted to talk to – No. I’m looking for anyone to talk to on the Democratic side. We are a democratic state.” “Look, we are a family of immigrants. My family came from a third-world country. We get it,” Abraham said. “My parents immigrated from the country of Iraq in the early ’60s, legally. “Completely ignored. I felt Katie got completely disrespected,” he said. “I okayed the use of Katie’s name in her honor. Midway Blitz was targeted – they knew exactly who they wanted. All Illinois Eleanor had to do was say these criminals – and they were criminals – is who we’re looking for. If they work with us, it doesn’t have to look like this in the streets.” “And how many other victims? I can only speak to Katie. And not everyone dies. No, there are other types of victims. And you ought to speak to every single one of them when your policies fail so severely,” he said.
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