WATCH: Trump Honors Angel Families at White House Remembrance Ceremony, Announces National Angel Family Day Proclaimation – Laken Riley’s Mother Speaks
President Trump on Monday spoke at a White House Angel Families Remembrance Ceremony, where he unveiled a new proclamation, recognizing February 22 as “National Angel Family Day.”
The new holiday, dedicated to the second anniversary of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s death, honors “the thousands of American lives stolen from us by criminal illegal aliens and the deadly drugs they bring across our borders.” The proclamation specifically notes the deaths of Laken Riley, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungary, and Rachel Morin, “who were brutally attacked and murdered by savage illegal aliens,” as well as Matthew Denice, Sarah Root, and Ivory Smith, who were ” killed by drunk-driving illegal aliens.”
During the event on Monday morning, the President announced his new proclamation while touting his success at closing the southern border.
He further highlighted the Laken Riley Act, one of the first bills he signed into law in his second term, which he said resulted in “over 21,000 illegal alien arrests.”
WATCH:
Trump: Thank you very much. It’s a big day, very important day for me. Should be important for everybody, including the media, but they don’t really cover it fairly, I will tell you that. Shocking. Please sit down. Thank you. We’re gathered here today for a truly solemn occasion. Throughout this hall, I am joined by heartbroken Americans who have lost parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and treasured loved ones to the scourge of illegal immigration, led in by the past administration, millions and millions of people from jails, millions and millions of people from countries that we don’t want to know about.
Drug dealers, murderers, 11,888 murders were allowed into our country by the Biden administration. These are the angel families that we love, that for decades our government betrayed and our media totally ignored. And I’ve seen it. When I first got involved with the angel families, I had a meeting, it was so sad, and they got up and spoke, and the media literally just turned off the cameras. They didn’t want to hear them. It was the most— that was my first glimpse as to what was happening. These are sick people. They cover stories like that, or they don’t cover them, which is worse. Everyone in this room not only suffered an infinite loss, there were the victims of politicians who put the comfort of foreign criminals before the safety of American citizens and American patriots. Their stories were censored and suppressed like maybe almost never before, so that the politicians could open our borders and allow our nation to be invaded. If we didn’t win the election, our nation would, right now, be destroyed, but under the Trump administration, their suffering is forgotten no longer. In just a few moments, I officially sign a proclamation that I’ve been waiting to sign for a long time, including my first administration, with so many different legal roadblocks, it was incredible. We got it done, and I’m doing it today. February 22 is going to be National Angel Family Day, very important. So many incredible family members and friends, parents and children
On February 22, two years ago, a brilliant 22 year old nursing student named Laken Hope Riley went out for a run on a college campus in Georgia. Laken was viciously attacked, brutally beaten, and murdered by an illegal alien gang member who the last administration heartlessly released into our country. No problems. Let him in. They let in everybody. They didn’t check anybody. They let in everybody. Among the first bills I signed into law after taking office last year was the Laken Riley act, so proud of it, to ensure illegal alien criminals are rapidly removed from the United States of America if that’s okay with the media. That bill has already been really playing a big role in the life of our country. It’s resulted in over 21,000 illegal alien arrests, 21,000.
Trump then invited Laken Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, to the podium to say a few words. She memorialized her daughter as “the most responsible, hard-working, kind, selfless, beautiful Christian,” who “just wanted to go for a run that morning after she’d gotten up at four o’clock the morning before to decorate her roommate’s door for her birthday,” when she was brutally murdered by a savage criminal.
Trump then added, “Laken’s story is even more tragic because her death was completely preventable. This shouldn’t have happened. The guy should never have been here. Not only should her killer not have been released into our country in the first place, but he was released a second time after being arrested in New York City.”
WATCH:
Riley: Well, this is unexpected, but I think that a lot of people feel like that President Trump is maybe different than the version I’ve gotten to know, and I just can’t thank you enough. You have said from the beginning, literally, the day after this happened, that you would not forget about Laken. You weren’t president at that time, and you have not forgotten. You have fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight. Most people wouldn’t. They would just say it’s just easier not to do this. And President Trump has— you are doing a thankless job that most people just wouldn’t do, and I just can’t thank you enough. There are just not enough words to say, because if you lived the nightmare that we have lived, you understand the importance of the job that he’s doing and securing our nation and fighting for our families because this could be any family. This happened to my family. This could be any one of your families. And Laken was the most responsible, hard working, kind, selfless, beautiful Christian, and she, she wasn’t somebody that put herself in bad positions. She didn’t make bad choices. She was just a good girl, and she just wanted to go for a run that morning after she’d gotten up at four o’clock the morning before to decorate her roommate’s door for her birthday. And she did everything for everyone else. She expected nothing in return. She just wanted to be a good friend and a good sister and a good daughter and a hard working nurse she was working so hard for. And I’m beyond blessed and thankful that you’re honoring not just Laken because she’s one in a ton of people that have suffered at the hands of illegal immigrants. She’s not the only one, and so thank you for honoring all of them, not just Laken, and we’re just beyond grateful. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you very much, amazing Allison. You have to go through this. Doesn’t get that much easier, does it right? Even with time, it’s been a while now, and it doesn’t get that much easier. But I want to thank you for your incredible courage. We’re all— we’re all courageous. In a sense. Everybody in this room is courageous, and we’re willing to tell the story. I don’t know why the news doesn’t want to hear it. The Democrats don’t want to hear it. The radical left, they don’t want to hear it. What’s not to hear? We want to stop murderers and criminals from coming into our country. I watched the mayor of Minneapolis. I watched these people saying we want to protect murderers. I don’t get— there’s something sick. They’re sick! Can’t have a country like that. So, we appreciate the bravery of everybody in this room, actually. And Kristi, I want to thank you, and I want to thank Tom, in particular, for, we have, we have a border that’s 100% closed now, 100%.
So, Laken’s story is even more tragic because her death was completely preventable. This shouldn’t have happened. The guy should never have been here. Not only should her killer not have been released into our country in the first place, but he was released a second time after being arrested in New York City. Here today is a great gentleman, the police officer who arrested that illegal alien, only to watch him be set free to kill. I mean, he was arrested, and they let him go free. They knew he was trouble, big trouble. Many of them are like that. They release him, knowing he’s going to kill again, but they released him and set him free to kill Laken.
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