WASHINGTON — “Angel families” whose loved ones have been killed by illegal immigrants and gang members are urging congressional Republicans to pass President Trump’s “big beautiful bill” to seal the border and fast-track deportations, The Post can exclusively reveal.
“We write to you not as politicians or pundits, but as parents — mothers and fathers who have buried our children because the United States government failed to secure its border,” they said in an open letter to Congress.
“There can be no justice for our children, but there can be accountability. There can be action. And there must be change,” they added.
“We urge every member of Congress to support the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and vote to secure the border, protect our communities, and prevent the next American family from living our nightmare.”
More than 60 angel relatives co-signed the letter, including the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter was allegedly murdered by two illegal migrants, and the family of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed by a Tren de Aragua gang member from Venezuela.
The bill, which Republicans are deliberating in the House, will provide $46.5 billion in funding for US-Mexico border wall construction, which could add up to 1,700 miles of fencing; hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers by 2030; and add as many as 100,000 more beds to detention facilities.
It would also provide more than $2 billion in retention and hiring bonuses for Border Patrol agents, heighten vetting of unaccompanied minors for gang ties and speed up deportation proceedings to as high as 1 million removals per year.
Deficit hawks like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) are balking at the bill having “backloaded savings” and “front-loaded spending,” given the US’ $36 trillion debt, while moderate New York Republicans are griping about not getting higher than $30,000 in State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions.
Those divisions have heightened as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushes for the warring factions to come to a resolution and help pass the legislation, which is being considered under a process known as budget reconciliation, by Memorial Day.
Johnson called Trump to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to make the case for the bill before the whole House Republican conference — but GOP holdouts haven’t said whether they will vote for the measure on final passage.
“It’s not a question of holdouts, we have a tremendously unified party,” Trump quibbled when taking questions from reporters before the meeting. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don’t like or they’re not going to get.”
Reconciliation allows the bill to be passed by a simple majority of both chambers of Congress, so long as it only makes changes to the debt ceiling, spending and revenue.
The GOP currently has a 220-213 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
Republicans have remained united about the increased border funding included in legislative package — despite the fiscal and tax fracas.
Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel Morin was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023, is one of the many “angel moms” backing it. She was also invited to Washington, DC, to call attention to the tragedies suffered by families due to the lax immigration policies of the Biden administration.
“These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country,” Morin told reporters at the White House in April after describing her 37-year-old daughter’s gruesome murder at the hands of Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, a Salvadoran national who was convicted that month of the crime.
“We are American citizens. Why should we allow people like this, violent criminals that have no conscience at all to murder our mothers, our sisters, our daughters?” she asked.
In their letter, the “angel families” said that for too long they “have been ignored, dismissed, or labeled as political props.”
“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,” they said.
“These were preventable tragedies. And yet, year after year, Washington offers excuses instead
of solutions. That must end now.”
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