Trump spotlights parents who have lost kids due to open borders during 'big, beautiful bill' event
President Donald Trump was joined by relatives of those killed at the hands of illegal immigrants during an event at the White House urging Congress to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The president said the legislation will ensure "no more families are victimized" by illegal immigrants and open border policies.
During the event Thursday in the East Room, Trump described what families have had to go through as a result of the previous administration's open border policies as "sick," adding just thinking about it makes people want to cry.
He pointed out that the GOP spending package, which still must be approved by Republicans in the Senate, would include provisions Trump described as "the single most important piece of border legislation ever to cross the floor of Congress."
At one point, Trump turned to Joe Abraham, an angel dad who lost his daughter Katie after an illegal immigrant rear-ended her stopped car at a traffic light while traveling 60 to 70 mph.
"We will end this invasion once and for all. And we're always going to remember the memory of Katie, that beautiful, beautiful 20-year-old daughter of yours," Trump said, before her father walked over to the president, shook his hand and provided Trump a picture of his daughter that the president held up for the audience.
Trump then highlighted a mother from Texas, Sarah Stuart, who the president said lost her brother to the ongoing fentanyl epidemic created by the United States' porous border policies.
"Our bill provides billions and billions of dollars to stop fentanyl and other illicit narcotics," Trump said. "We're also charging other countries like Mexico, Canada and China billions of dollars in taxes that we put on because they've allowed people that are selling fentanyl to go through their countries. Or, in the case of China, they send it here."
On Thursday, shortly before Trump's "big, beautiful event" at the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions for the families of fentanyl traffickers.
"I get irritated. I get pissed off because I'm sick of meeting angel moms and dads," Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said at the event. "You want to talk about family separation? They bury their children."
Last month, a letter from more than 60 angel moms, dads and relatives was sent to members of Congress, urging them to pass Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
In addition to hiring more border patrol agents and providing more funding for the border wall, the legislation would allow the addition of extra detention centers for detained migrants, increased scrutiny of unaccompanied minors' potential gang ties and speed up deportations to at least 1 million per year.
"Every single one of us is living with a permanent hole in our lives because an illegal immigrant, who never should have been in this country, was allowed to stay and take an innocent life," the letter states. "These were preventable tragedies. And yet, year after year, Washington offers excuses instead of solutions. That must end now."
Fox News Digital's Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
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