(The Center Square) – Ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris traveling to Houston to join celebrities like Beyonce at an event celebrating abortion in Houston, President Donald Trump met with Houston angel mom Alexis Nungaray and Border Patrol agents and held a press event in Austin.
Nungaray has endorsed Trump for president and blamed the Biden-Harris administration’s “catch and release” policy for killing her 12-year-old daughter.
Nungaray has joined Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Houston, at events after they were among the first to reach out to her and offer condolences to her and her family for the murder of her 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. Joceyln was allegedly strangled to death and left half naked in a bayou by two Venezuelan men. After they illegally entered the country, they were released by Border Patrol agents with ankle monitors. Within 30 days, they’d arrived in Nungaray’s neighborhood. Authorities later learned they were connected to the violent Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua.
Nungaray thanked Trump for the opportunity to speak.
“I know everybody knows somebody that was like her. She was 12. She was going to be a 7th grader,” she said.
“Due to the Biden-Harris policies … are why she’s not here anymore. She was taken from her vulnerability and they made her a target. Now I will forever be a grieving mother and my son will forever be a grieving brother who will no longer get to grow up with his sister.”
She also said, “Kamala Harris has never reached out to me just even as a human to give her condolences as a humane person running this country. I think it’s very sad that she can’t even just give me an open apology, a sincere apology.”
She mentioned that Harris “attempted to apologize to me just days before this election,” which she said, “I find it very inconvenient.”
Nungaray has endorsed Cruz, who’s called out his challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, for voting for Biden-Harris policies that he and other Republicans argue created the border crisis. Allred criticized Cruz over the endorsement, saying it was “a political stunt.” Allred also criticized Nungaray in a television interview, saying if he had lost a child he would “turn that into action.” Nungaray said his remarks were “a slap in the face.”
In response, she said, “Senator Ted Cruz sat down with me days after my daughter was murdered. It was because of policies supported by Colin Allred that two illegal migrants were released from custody and were able to do what they did to my daughter,” The Center Square reported.
“For Colin Allred to say that Sen. Cruz and I advocating for stronger immigration laws is only for political gain is a slap in the face to me,” she said. “I’m not doing this for anyone’s gain, I’m doing this to solely advocate for my daughter. Jocelyn’s voice was ripped away from her. It is now my duty as a mother to forever be her voice, and no one will ever take that away from me. Colin Allred has no right to tell me how to fight for my daughter’s memory.”
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, also criticized angel moms, including Nungaray, saying they were being used by Republicans in a congressional hearing earlier this year. The angel moms said no one was using them and they were demanding that the border be closed so that no other Americans would be killed by foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally, The Center Square reported.
Trump again offered condolences to Nungaray and other angel parents, saying he plans to crack down on crimes being committed against Americans by illegal border crossers.
Trump’s border security plan includes launching the largest deportation effort in U.S. history and re-implementing policies from his administration to deter illegal border crossings and ensure consequences for criminal acts.
National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez, who has already endorsed Trump, said Harris was coming to Houston “not to apologize or highlight illegal alien crime but to party like a fool on stage with celebrities instead of apologizing to the families.
“This is somebody who likes to brag about being a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted transnational gangs and cartel members so she knew better … than most exactly the threat that these people, these animals … bring to our communities that will harm our families.”
Criminal foreign nationals are “part of the Kamala crime wave … that has devastated cities. President Trump strikes fear in the enemies of America. That is the type of leadership that we need in this country. Just recently, the criminal cartels have green lit firing on Border Patrol agents. They would have never done that under President Trump because they know he would send the message that if you touch a single hair on a Border Patrol agent, ‘I will eradicate you.’ That’s the strength and leadership we need from President Trump.”
On Friday night, hundreds waited for hours to attend the Harris event in Houston, believing Beyonce would perform. Harris and Beyonce spoke about the need for women to have abortions, blaming Trump and Cruz for a state abortion ban. After realizing that Beyonce wasn’t performing, large numbers of the audience left, according to multiple videos posted on social media.