President Donald Trump hosted the families of victims of crimes committed by immigrants living in the country illegally for a ceremony at the White House called the “Angel Family Day.”
“We gathered here today for a truly solemn occasion,” Trump said. “Throughout this hall, I am joined by heartbroken Americans who have lost parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and treasured loved one to the scourge of illegal immigrants let in by the past administration.”
Trump declared Monday as the “National Angel Family Day,” which coincides with the two-year anniversary of Laken Riley’s death. Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was found dead on Feb. 22, 2024, after she was killed while jogging in a wooded area on the University of Georgia campus.
“Feb. 22 is going to be National Angel Family Day, very important to so many incredible family members and friends, parents and children,” he said.
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, delivered remarks Monday after embracing the president, and said from the beginning, even before he was reelected, Trump said he would “not forget about Laken.”
“You have fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight,” Phillips said.
Trump also honored family members of other crime victims, including Steve Ronnebeck, the father of a gas station clerk Grant Ronnebeck, who was shot and killed by a man local media said was in the country illegally.
Much of the conversation around their deaths and others at the ceremony focused on praising Trump for his immigration crackdown efforts and criticism against former President Joe Biden and his administration.
The ceremony comes amid a time of heightened scrutiny and criticism of the Trump administration’s deportation tactics, and after the deaths of two U.S. citizens during a deportation crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.
“We want people to actually know how preventable this murder was, and lastly, we want the American government to be accountable to its citizens, they should be accountable for what they did,” Trump said. “That’s my administration, and I will tell you ... we’re fighting so hard, all of them, everybody together, is fighting. We’re putting American citizens first. We’re defending American lives and we’re fighting for every Angel family.”
Riley’s death became a flash point of the 2024 election, with some people on the right saying she deserved justice and that the left’s stance on immigration was too lenient.