Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump honored the mothers of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray — two souls who were savagely murdered by illegal immigrants in the United States. In a callous display of moral depravity, Democrats in the room refused to stand and show respect for the victims’ families, opting instead to ignore their suffering and dismiss the efforts Republicans have taken to bring justice.
Trump spoke movingly about Riley, who he described as “the best in her class, admired by everybody,” before emphasizing that Riley was “stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member.”
“Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain,” Trump said, highlighting the signing of the Laken Riley Act, which requires authorities to detain illegal aliens accused of violent crimes.
Riley, 22, was brutally murdered in February of 2024 by 26-year-old illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan who entered the country illegally in 2022 and was reportedly “cut loose” into the country due to a lack of detention space. Ibarra attacked and beat Riley to death as she was out on a run.
According to The Federalist’s Breccan Thies, who was present at the Capitol during the joint address, Democrats refused to stand to honor Riley’s life and her mother and sister, who were fighting back tears.
Then came the heartbreaking story of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was “reportedly lured under a bridge, assaulted for two hours and strangled to death by two illegal immigrants” and her body “was found bound and stripped in a Houston bayou,” as reported by my colleague M.D. Kittle.
Yet when Trump announced the renaming of a wildlife refuge in her honor, the same Democratic lawmakers that once bent the knee to honor the violent criminal George Floyd refused to stand and recognize the tragedy that befell Nungary and her family.
Democrats, as Thies reported, couldn’t “even find the decency to stand for DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old boy who has been fighting brain cancer most of his life, and whose night was just made by becoming an honorary member of the U.S. Secret Service.”
Democrats’ moral bankruptcy was on full display Tuesday night. Their callousness and refusal to acknowledge the victims of their disastrous open border policy speaks volumes about the ideology that has overtaken the party.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2