JOE ABRAHAM: Sanctuary Policies Killed My Daughter. It’s Time To End This Nightmare

My daughter Katie was just 20 years old. A junior at Ohio University. Bright, beautiful, and full of life. She had a spark you cannot teach and a heart that loved deeply. She was the kind of person who made others feel seen. And now she is gone forever — because of a broken immigration system and the cowardice of politicians who chose politics over public safety.

Katie was killed by an illegal immigrant, Julio Cucul Bol, who had already been deported once and reentered the United States in 2022, completely undetected, according to local law enforcement and the State’s Attorney.

On Jan.19, 2025, Bol got behind the wheel — allegedly after drinking — and drove nearly 80 miles per hour, and plowed into the car my daughter was riding in. The State’s Attorney has said they are confident, based on video evidence, witness statements, and other details that he had been drinking earlier in the night. Katie died at the scene and her friend passed away the following day.

This is the kind of person Gov. JB Pritzker’s sanctuary policies protected.

Illinois is a sanctuary state. That means the state actively refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement until an illegal alien commits a serious crime. It prohibits law enforcement from coordinating with ICE. It allows people who are in this country illegally, even those with criminal records, to live here without consequence. The man who killed my daughter should never have been in the country or Illinois in the first place. Pritzker and others like him do not protect immigrant families. They enabled criminals and sacrificed innocent Americans and other immigrants.

This was not a random accident. This was not a freak occurrence. This was preventable. And it happened because political leaders in sanctuary states put ideology before common sense. My daughter was killed because elected officials made the deliberate choice to shield repeat offenders from the law. Now my family is left to pick up the pieces while they continue pretending they have done nothing wrong.

There will be no real justice in this case. The maximum sentence Bol could receive is 43 years, according to the Champaign County State’s Attorney. Some charges require serving 85% of the sentence, others only 50%, meaning he could serve much less, possibly as little as 20 to 28 years. Katie and her friend lost a combined 100 years of life, and this man could walk free in one or two decades. That is not justice. That is failure.

Our country needs a new direction. I support President Trump’s call for a complete overhaul of our immigration system. We, as a country, need to invest heavily in border security, close asylum loopholes, and prioritize deportation of repeat offenders. We also need to add funding to hire thousands of additional Border Patrol agents, modernize our border infrastructure, and deploy advanced surveillance technology to stop criminals before they cross.

This is not about politics. It is about safety. It is about ensuring that what happened to Katie does not happen to anyone else. For too long, some of our leaders – like Pritzker, who just last week defended these dangerous sanctuary policies before Congress, and like those in California who actively obstructed ICE raids, have put illegal immigrants, even violent ones, ahead of American citizens. That must end now.

My daughter did not get a second chance. She did not get a trial. She did not get mercy. Katie was disappeared and separated from us forever–she got death. So no, I will not sit quietly. I will not pretend everything is fine. And I will not stop speaking out until the policies that killed Katie are off the books forever.

If you support sanctuary policies, you need to understand what they really mean. They are not compassionate. They are dangerous. And they are getting people killed.

My daughter deserved better. So do the American people.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.