White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the family members of those harmed and killed by illegal immigrants will be present at President Donald Trump’s upcoming congressional address.
Leavitt told Fox & Friends that Trump will highlight the significance of securing the U.S.-Mexico border by inviting the relatives of those who were brutally killed at the hands of illegal immigrants under former President Joe Biden’s administration, when illegal border crossings reached record levels. Trump and first lady Melania Trump further invited “everyday heroes” and law enforcement officers who died protecting their communities.
“The first lady will be in attendance tonight and the list that she and President Trump put together is phenomenal. There will be everyday American heroes in attendance, Stephanie Diller, who you mentioned who lost her husband in the line of duty at the hands of an illegal immigrant,” Leavitt said. “You have Marc Fogel, who of course because of President Trump’s peace through strength efforts was returned from Russian captivity. [The family of] Corey Comperatore, who lost his life protecting his family in Butler, Pennsylvania. You’ll also have an auto worker, a steel worker, and you will see exceptional Americans with great stories. President Trump will be telling their stories tonight.”
The press secretary further said the mothers of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray and 22-year-old Laken Riley, who were both murdered by illegal immigrants, will be in attendance.
“That’s part of the reason President Trump is working so hard on these deportations and why Congress and Democrats need to get on board with this effort because a vast majority of Americans are supportive of it,” Leavitt said.
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In June, two illegal immigrants from Venezuela sexually assaulted and strangled 12-year-old Nungaray in Houston, Texas, and dumped her corpse in a creek. Her mother, Alexis, became highly critical of the Biden administration, crediting its “open border policies” and catch-and-release programs for the death of her daughter during a Sept. 10 congressional hearing.
One of the most high-profile criminal cases surrounding an illegal immigrant involved the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, who died from blunt force trauma to the head at the hands of Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra in February 2024. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. through an entryway near El Paso, Texas, and was released into the country on parole due to the lack of detention space at the time.
Ibarra was arrested in New York City for allegedly acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 years old, and later traveled to Athens, Georgia, on a “humanitarian flight” in September 2023. Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law in January, which requires authorities to detain migrants for theft-related crimes and allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their residents because of illegal immigration.
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A jury found Ibarra guilty on all ten counts of killing Riley outside of the University of Georgia’s campus and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Border officials encountered over 2.4 million illegal immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year and over 2.1 million in the 2024 fiscal year, the final year of the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Encounters have totaled to over 350,000 in the 2025 fiscal year thus far.
Stephanie Diller, one of Trump’s guests, lost her husband Jonathan, a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer, in March 2024 after 34-year-old Guy Rivera shot the officer below his bulletproof vest. Rivera had reportedly been arrested 21 times prior to the fatal incident and served a five-year prison term for drug-related crimes,
While Trump attended the wake of the slain officer, Biden went to a campaign event set to raise $25 million dollars in New York City along with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton on the same day.
Marc Fogel, another special guest, returned to the U.S. after being detained in Russia for more than three years while serving his 14-year sentence for carrying 17 grams of medical marijuana to relieve his back pain at an airport. His mother, Malphine, criticized the Biden administration for the delay in getting her son released and filed a lawsuit against the Biden State Department last June, which later got dismissed, according to CBS News.
The family of firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died while shielding his daughters from bullets at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, will also be in attendance, Leavitt said. The bullets were fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate then-Republican presidential nominee Trump from a nearby rooftop.
The president further invited 19-year-old Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player who suffered from a traumatic brain injury after facing off a transgender-identifying male, to attend the speech as a special guest, the Daily Caller first learned.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
