Speaker 1: And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle's senior elections correspondent at the
Federalist and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge.
As always, you can email the show at radio at
the Federalist dot com, follow us on ex at fdr LST.
Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and
of course to the premium version of our website as well.
Our guest today is Joe Abraham. He's not a politician
or a powerful bureaucrat, an author, or a celebrity. Joe
Abraham is a dad from glen View, Illinois. In January,
his daughter Katie, his youngest child, was killed in a
car crash near the University of Illinois Orbannon. She was twenty.
The man accused of taking Katie's life and the life
of another young woman is a previously deported illegal alien
who police say fled from the scene of the crash.
He was later apprehended on his way to the southern border.
Last week, Joe Abraham was the guest of the chairman
of the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee, James Comer,
and that committee they had on the hot seat. Three
governors in what is viewed by most as sanctuary states,
in Minnesota, New York, and in Joe Abraham's own Illinois,
where Democrat JB. Pritzker presides as governor. All three of
these politicians have said, or their policies have indicated that
they will not, at least at some level, work with
federal law enforcement authorities to apprehend, detain, or bring into
custody in general, illegal immigrants, including criminal illegal immigrants. That's
a difficult thing to hear for people like Joe Abraham.
He joins us now on this edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. Good day, sir, thank you so much for
joining us.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Matt appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Before we get into what you saw you experienced on
Capitol Hill last week, let us go back. And as
I told you before we started our recorded conversation, and
I've told you many times, it hurts my heart that
we have to talk about this because that means we
have to bring it all up again. But I think
people need to know your story, and I think our
listeners know that you are not alone sadly on this front.
Take us back, please, what happened in January of this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so January, the weekend of January eighteenth, Katie and
a friend of hers went down to University of Illinois
to visit other friends. There were five in the car
and they were at a stoplight and Julio kugle Bowl
driving the SUV, slammed into the car at seventy eight
miles an hour. Now, the electronics in the car, I
guess the police can look at sort of almost like
a black box. There was no swerving, there was no breaking,
It was just you know, I think it was like
zero point five seconds. That might have been a break
put on. So he hit the car at seventy eight
miles an hour. Now, he was allegedly intoxicated. He's been charged.
One of the charges relate to that. So the next
that was early Sunday morning, we get a phone call
from a urbanon detective that Katie's dead. You know, this
is what happens.
Speaker 1: So it was, you know, it's it's the call no parent.
I know this is said over and over again. It
almost sounds trite, but when you hear it, there is
nothing like it. It is the phone call no parent
ever ever wants to get, and no parent with any
heart would ever want any parent to have to receive.
Speaker 2: I don't even know how to explain it. It's something
I've never felt before in my life. You kind of
think about it sometimes with kids when they're out and
about Yeah it is. It is like literally no words,
And I wish I could tell you and your audience
what it's like, but there's just nothing like it. There's
there's literally when they say no words, that's really what
it was. So, you know, the sad thing is we
had to drive up to her sisters at Central Michigan.
She was going to school up there, so we had
to drive up there that day to tell her face
to face. We didn't want to hear her to hear
it in any other way. And you know, Katie and
her sister were like best friend. They're year apart, they're
best friends, you know, they My goodness, the loss she
suffered with that is just heartbreak in there. So it's
almost like Matt, it's almost going through it twice, I guess. Yeah,
it's so devastating to to, you know, see both of
them in this spot.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I can, I can understand to a point.
It's something that I would never ever want to imagine,
as you say, every parent you know thinks about it
sometimes keeps us up at night. What if you get
that phone call and the kids are out on the
highway or whatever. But so after after you get this
phone called, then what happens?
Speaker 2: Did you know?
Speaker 1: Were you informed right away that they believe the suspect
had fled and that the suspect indeed was not legally
a resident of the United States of America and should
not have been here in the first place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had to hang up when I first got
the news. I told the detective I have to call
them back. I had the process, you're sort of in
a fog, you don't really you can't really think straight,
and I didn't want any more details until I pulled
myself somewhat together. Sure, so I called them back and
wanted to know, like what would happened, and they kind
of went through it, and I said, well, do you
have the suspect? What's the details around that? And when
she said, well, the suspect fled on foot. Now knowing
we're in the sanctuary state where ye, you know, sort
of well, I don't want to say welcome because it's
not really the word it's just that we protect folks
that probably shouldn't be in the state. So I sort
of had the feeling and that, oh boy, he's looking
to get out of the country. Is that right? And
they said, well, we're getting into it, and we are
looking at it and it looks like he may have
fled Urbana, and you know, we have every all hands
on deck. You know, they spoke to the federal side,
the US marshals, and indeed he was an a legal
immigrant and they caught him sort of between Dallas and
Mexico's my understanding. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's interesting too, Joe, because you talk about and
that's what this hearing this past week was about sanctuary states,
but you were dealing with law enforcement officials who were
dealing with the reality of Urbana, Illinois, being a sanctuary city.
I mean, several years ago, the city council voted that
they would in certain ways not cooperate with ice with
Immigration Customs enforcement, and they set it up that way
in their vote. We're a welcoming city. We welcome you know, everybody,
including people who are here, as they say, undocumented migrants,
illegal aliens. They're welcome, and you know, we're not going
to assist law enforcement officials in apprehending them for violating
the law. So I'm curious what that conversation was, like,
did the officer tell you right away or did she
have to kind of protect that information given the status
of the sanctuary city.
Speaker 2: So she did. The detective did say that they believed
he was undocumented and they are trying to locate him,
you know. Other than that initially, that's sort of all
the information they had. Look, he's and we feel he's undocumented.
I believe he was deported back in the twenty eighteen
sort of range. I don't know exact the exact year,
but came back in in twenty twenty two under an alias.
Which is frustrating because if again, you had a front
end process, regardless of the laws, if you had some
kind of a rational process that audited or vetted folks
coming in on the front end. The fact that he
was coming in under an alias, and the FEDS knew
that he had this alias, that's the other thing. The
Feds knew that, and then that there was no I
don't know if there's communications or the state didn't care.
I don't know how that kind of fell through their cracks.
But you would think that if someone using an alias
who had previously been deported, if you had a front
end process, you would have caught that, and Katie would
be with me today.
Speaker 1: And of course these are not necessarily things that you're
thinking about at that time. Over the last several months,
you've been thinking a lot about that. In fact, that
is part of what you have been talking about now
for for some time. This front end process, you know,
a better vetting process. But what did you think? I guess, ultimately,
this is the question, did it make a difference to
you the immigration status of this individual? Because ultimately, whether
it was an American citizen or a non citizen, the
result is the same. But I keep hearing from the
people who support wide open borders and sanctuary jurisdictions.
Speaker 2: You know that.
Speaker 1: The legal immigrants aren't committing crimes at higher levels than citizens,
which patently is false if you look at the crime statistics.
But all of that said, they're argument is, you know,
there are a lot of very good illegal immigrants. They're
only act of breaking the law, if they even accept that,
is that they came here and are undocumented, they broke
immigration law. They're good, hardworking people, all of these you've
heard all of this sort of thing. But I think
the argument that is hard to defend for these folks
is the crime. The crimes would not have been committed
had the individual not been here illegally in the first place.
I know that that has certainly gone through your mind
over these last several months.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the frustrating thing. I know. During the hearing,
my governor would talk about that that you know, there
was a lot of contradictions, but he would say, hey,
you know, if you know we are sanctuary, we take
care of every resident, and if someone breaks the law,
then they will be process, they will be you know,
they'll be tried and convicted in that whole thing, right,
And to your point, my point was, you know you
shouldn't have been here. Why do we have to wait
if you pull in the people that are going to
do wrong? And I think you can kind of vet that.
I think in the front end, I believe you have
to be able to have a process to do that.
But why are you okay with sort of everybody and
anybody and then knowing or expecting some of these folks
and it's true some of them have behaved poorly but
now you have to deal with them and the whole
situation on this back end, which is so much tougher
as you can see, like you have lawsuits. I have
to like, I will suffer the rest of my life.
I don't know how much time I've got left, but
it will never be the same Katie. And we had
plans for you know, when I was kind of done
working what we would do a lot of things. And
that's just not going to happen anymore, right, So I
have to deal with that, and that's on the back end.
I really believe if you had a process, even at
the state level, this wouldn't have happened. So I felt very,
very discouraged that they're saying we're just gonna let everybody in.
You know, they don't they don't they cause crimes lesson citizens,
and if they do a crime, then we're going to
take care of it. And my point was, if we're
already having crimes and gangs and all that within the citizens,
I can't do much about that. They're citizens, right, but
why are we importing more that we could actually filter out.
You can distill it down to the people that actually
want to be here, be productive, be good citizens and
not sort of take advantage of the system and you
know us, you know, just kind of suffering the the
the carnage that happens with some of the stuff that
happened with the undocumented. And yeah, and one other thing.
I was worried. So people always tell me, oh, you'd
feel better with a citizen doing it. I'd say, the
only thing with that is, at least I know a citizen,
probably very much so, doesn't have the same advantages of
escaping as an undocumented So at least I have a
better chance to get justice, some justice. It's not going
to be full justice with a citizen that I do.
Within he was, he was probably a few hours away
from getting away, right, So that's that's the other that's
the other hook.
Speaker 3: This is Molly Hemingway of The Federalist, Join Me My Husband,
Mark of Real Clear Investigations, CNN political commentator Scott Jennings,
doctor Carl Truman of Grove City College, and others for
the twenty twenty five Making the Case Conference Friday July
eighteenth and Saturday July nineteenth at Concordia University Chicago. Learn
more at Issues Etc. Dot org. Making the Case July
eighteenth and nineteenth in Chicago Issues, etc.
Speaker 2: Dot Org.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. I mean,
this was an individual who was very close to escaping
justice or whatever justice comes. And that's the other part
of this. When Governor JB. Pritzker, who has had some
very incendiary language for ICE and for President Trump's enforcement measures,
finally a president who is enforcing the immigration laws. That's
a departure from what we have experienced for a long
time in this country, particularly after four years of what
can only be described as an invasion of illegal immigrants
in this country. Exactly what you're talking about, no real check,
no audit, no vetting on the front end, and then
on the back end. Well, we have stories of Katie Abraham,
and we have so many different stories, say their names.
Speaker 2: But when JB.
Speaker 1: Pritzker in that hearing last week talks about, hey, if
they're criminals, if they do something, engage in criminal activity,
then they're going to have the go through the court system. Well,
guess what we've learned over the past several months, as
we've actually enforced the laws. The Department of Homeland Security
and ICE are actually going after these violent illegal immigrants
it's they've been through the Chicago and Illinois court systems,
the Minneapolis court systems, the New York City court systems.
They should have been in jail, but some leftist prosecutor
giving sanctuary decided that they didn't really need to be
in jail after committing or being accused of some very
violent crimes. I mean, we've seen so many repeat violent
offenders who are let out free. That is to me,
the lie that we're hearing from these governs, from these
sanctuary supporters now trying to hide as they, you know,
face the congressional panels under oath. What did you think
about that hearing and hearing other stories of Americans like
you who have lost family members to violent crimes, or
they have daughters who have been brutally raped, or the
stories are just horrific and they're too many.
Speaker 2: No, I agree with you on that. I mean being
at the hearing and not only seeing what happened in
the committee meeting, but talking to lawmakers before that, and
you see so many stories that you like, I didn't.
I'm not. You know, it tuned into everything that's going on,
but I didn't realize it was that much, right, So
it was like that was sort of a surprise, like,
holy cow, this is really going on and a lot
of places, and it's happening a lot And to your point, exactly,
a lot of these have gone through the court system
and they're still out and about right, even with an
undocumented status. For example, not only did the person that
killed Katie come into the country under an ALIAS, they
should have caught him there, but he had been pulled
over in Illinois with the ALIAS documentation and then driving
without a driver's license. But I don't think anything happened,
like like, nothing happened on that. So there was a
couple of chances. I think that you could have stopped
this guy and Katie would be alive. I suspect that
story is similar in a lot of these other cases,
which is again discouraging, because you know you can't. It's
so again I've become so cynical now, like the last
four years, they're telling one side's telling us that there's
nothing we can do unless we get this new law
or comprehensive immigration reform, and we got to have all
this other stuff. But that was never true, right, and
it was completely a fake out. It was look at today,
the border seems to be pretty stable, right. You didn't
need any new laws to do that, And it's certainly
not compassionate what happened over the last four years. For example,
the cartel has a multi billion dollar industry that our
government set up for them moving people around. That seems
very weird to me that that's okay. And then you
have all these children. I don't know, maybe the numbers
not three, four, five hundred thousand, maybe it's less, but
somewhere between zero and five hundred thousand, any number in
between there, Matt is unacceptable. Yah, apparently that's acceptable. But
we were lied to for four years and then, you know,
folks like us have to suffer now the rest of
our lives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were absolutely right, Joe. We were lied to
on so many different fronts, but none more so than
on the compassion project that they try to bill it as.
I think there are a lot of rightfully cynical people
who believe that the past four years was nothing more
than trying to build a contingency for a dying Democratic party.
That's a topic I think that we can address at
another time. But you've talked to me about this, and
you've talked to lawmakers about this and others about that
compassion element. And I want to get into that because
we're talking about illegal immigration, we're not talking about legal
immigration and following the law and following the process. We'll
do that in just a moment. Our guest today is
Joe Abraham. No politician, no powerful bureaucrat. He is a dad,
a dad who is grieving along with the rest of
his family and the loss of Joe's daughter, Katie, twenty
years old. Police say she was killed along with another
young woman twenty one years old, in a car crash
around the University of Illinois, Urbana in January. The man
accused of taking Katie's life was a previously deported illegal alien.
We are talking obviously about the enforcement efforts now unto
the Trump administration, the mess that has been left for
America to clean up the previous four years. And I
want to get to this. You have told me on
several occasions. You've told other media outlets that your parents,
your dad, immigrated to this country many years ago. He
did so through the legal process. You have been cleared.
You have nothing against immigration, obviously, but you have everything
against what we have experienced in this country for so long,
particularly the previous four years.
Speaker 2: Agree, it is exactly right. It's my folks came over
in the sixties. It took years, right, a few years
to get here legally, and they've sort of followed the rules.
And I've got no problem with that. Just again, set
up that process where it's not a free for all
of the Wild West, where anybody and everybody comes in
and you know, all of a sudden, we have more gangs,
we have more you know, it just doesn't make sense.
Cartels have new industries and money making schemes, and you know,
you wonder what's it, what's it for at the end
of the day. Because here's my frustration, Matt, with what
happened over the last four years and and and what's
going to happen in the future. I think this is
the way they behaved and the way they've lied has
so soured the American people on immigration that people in
the future now are going to suffer because you thought
you had some short term gain, that you were going
to lie to people, you were going to flood the zone. Right,
And maybe they feel okay, getting fifteen twenty million people
in here, they don't need any more going forward, But
I'm frustrated that, you know, immigrants in the future, good
people will not be able or will be more difficult
to come in because of what happened over the last
four years. So I don't think they were playing the
long game. Match. Maybe you've got some insight as to
why they took the short end and flooded the zone
and made the American lied to them and frustrated them,
and they were going to continue. I think it would
have continued another four years if Donald Trump wasn't elected.
So maybe you've got some insight on what that was
all about, because I really do think now the long term,
I don't think you have the American people on the
immigration side, which is I think to me very unfortunate.
Speaker 1: No, it would have continued, and I think about that.
I think about that quite frequently. What would this country
be like right now under President Kamala Harris the borders
are if you recall, And I do think there was
a short term game being played, a strategy for a
long term solution to their political issues and problems. I
do believe, and I don't think I'm alone in this position,
And I think if Democrats were honest in Democrats and
position of the power. They would tell you that they
were looking at building their base their constituency. Ultimately there
would be a sweeping amnesty because you couldn't possibly right
enforce the law, apprehend and deport illegal immigrants. Well, now
they're learning that you can do that, but it always
takes the will of the American people and what the
American people pople have experienced in this country, principally by
what you and other victims have experienced in this country.
Americans in November obviously said on that front, among others,
enough is enough. I want to get to the hearing. Actually,
you had an interesting experience the night before last Thursday's hearing,
which was quite a doozy. I understand it. I followed
some of it. It was about eight hours and a
lot of testimony and these governors squirming on the hot seat.
You actually met with one of the governors who would
testify it that hearing the night before. Tell us a
little bit about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we were there Wednesday, We had phone and
Wednesday morning we met with some lawmakers on a lot
of staff and attorneys that kind of thing, and it
was a you know, kind of a long day. So
my wife and I decided, you know, we're just going
to kind of break away. Let's go have dinner, you
and I, you know, my wife and I alone and
just kind of unwind and get ready for the next day.
So we went to a local restaurant a little bit,
you know, not too close to the capitol, Matt. We
thought we'd go maybe a couple of miles away so
we wouldn't run into anybody. Sure, And we sat there
and we were about to eat our dinner, and then
the table next to us we can literally reach out.
Governor Walls and some of his folks sit down at
that table. I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: We're Tim Walls. Governor Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota.
He's one of the three governors, the sanctuary governors appearing
the next day at this hearing. And there you are
sitting right across the table. Basically, that's right.
Speaker 2: So I did. I did. I told my wife, you
know what, I gotta get up and I've gotta talk
to him a little bit. So I had gotten up
and I walked over and I said, Governor, it's you know,
good to see you, because I've uh, we'll see you
tomorrow at the hearings. Well, there, my daughter Katie was
you know, killed by an undocumented migrant. So it's an
unfortunate situation that I'm seeing you here and meeting you here.
Speaker 1: And what is his face like at that point, Joe,
that's I talked to you recently about this, but I
didn't get a chance to ask you that when you
make this information known to him, I can almost imagine,
you know, just a friendly and you are very respectful,
very friendly man. I don't think you would go up
and harass a public official like so many unfortunately on
the other side of the aisle that we've seen in
recent months. But what was his demeanor? What was his
face like? As I can almost imagine him, you know,
with a big tim Walls grin on his face, and
then all of a sudden you lay this information on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I should have prefaced this by saying initially,
I spent a lot of time childhood wise in Minnesota.
I've got family up there, so got nothing but fond
memories up in Minnesota. So I didn't mention that him. Hey,
I just want to let you know I spent a
lot of time in Minnesota, nothing but fond memories and
then I hit him with a I'll see it to
not to be rude again to I just want to
have a conversation. And just because we don't ree policy wise,
I'm okay with balking him. And he was. He was
a nice enough guy. But no, you could see the
faith he stood up at that point because he was
still sitting. He stood up at that point, and we
kind of, you know, he gave me condolences. We talked
a little bit about that, and so all in all, Matt,
it was a it was a good decent conversation, which
I to your point, I don't know why more people
don't do that. We don't agree at all and some
of this stuff, and I'm not saying I blame him personally,
but I blame some of the policies. So we don't
have to agree. But it doesn't mean we're going to
be at each other's throat. He's a nice enough guy.
Should he be the president? I think from a policy
perspective perspective, I would say, probably not my guy, but
certainly someone friendly enough he can talk to, you know.
So it didn't go poorly. As a matter of fact,
I sat down, my wife goes, wow, you really really
like she said, I didn't think you'd be up there
like confronting them, but you were really super nice. And
I said, well, you know again, we're I'm not going
to go up there and harass the guy. I just
want to say hello. And here you all see it
the hearing, and you know, here's what happened in our lives.
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Speaker 1: Was he wearing a flannel shirt? Spent a lot of
time campaigning in that flannel shirt, so I wanted I
know he wasn't at the hearing. And this is the
interesting part. We'll get to JB. Pritzker in just a
moment too, But Governor Tim Walls was asked a lot
of questions by Republicans on that oversight committee. Do you
really believe what you said? There were a lot of
those questions because they had a lot of text, they
had a lot of executive orders, they had a lot
of press releases and messages, and these three governors that
were on the hot seat last week had to explain
a lot of their words. And most recently, of course,
we hear the governor of Minnesota call ice agents the
modern day gestapo. Again, there's a deep policy divide here.
What did you think about him? And how he tried
to explain away this rhetoric at the hearing.
Speaker 2: I find it actually very amazing that these guys can
say one thing, or write one thing, or send some
kind of message and then completely shift and say, no,
that's not what I believe.
Speaker 1: I believe it's politicians right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And maybe because I'm not that politic and I
feel like I've got a good character that I couldn't
look at Matt, I couldn't look at you and say
one thing and then a minute later tell you something
completely opposite, like I just I don't have that for
I can't do that, right. So that's definitely like if
you're going to say something and you believe something, just
like Matt, just like the sanctuary policies, you know, own it,
stand up to it. Because one minute he's saying kind
of complaining that Texas sent fifty thousand and he's cleaning
up the federal mess that they left at the border
and he's the one taking all the But at the
other time, he's saying, you know, the immigrants, whether they're
because you're going to remember, he makes no distinction between
legal and illegal, right or auditor or unaudited.
Speaker 1: They can't say illegal immigrant. You know, Joe Biden had
a moment of Joe Biden as when he used the
term illegal immigrant, if you recall during his last State
of the Union address, and it cost him dearly. These
guys don't use the term illegal immigrant. They politically find
it anotha and horrible. And so they're up there saying
migrants and they're not even saying undocumented that often. But right,
I mean, they they refuse to use the terms, the
legal terms that we're dealing with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they come up with their own words. Like in
this case again it'd be I think we called it
residents a lot. They take care of all their residents,
They do everything they can for their residence. And again
there's no distinction, you know. So one hand he's saying,
you know, I'm cleaning up the mess. It's we didn't
ask for this. On the other hand, he's saying, you know,
the margarets of the you know, backbone, and we welcome them,
and we take care of them, and we're safer because
of it. We're a better place because of.
Speaker 1: It, safer because of it. What's going through your mind
when you hear that, because that statement came up over
and over again at that hearing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, definitely, because at first I think of it,
I'm safer. Then why isn't Katie here with me? Why
why am I here? And why isn't my youngest with me? Why?
Why will I never see my little girl again? Why
is that? If I'm safer, I wasn't safer? So there
is definitely, like you you have to kind of sit
there and hold your tongue and composure and when you're
hearing a lot of this stuff like when he said
the migrants are sort of better than the citizens directionally, like,
that's kind of odd. I thought to sort of say that.
But just the contradictions and the what do you call
the contradictions and the inconsistencies in the words just struck
me as like so natural for them, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: Actually, there was a moment in that long hearing last
week that I talked to you about earlier. I'd like
to again get your perspective on. In fact, I wrote
a piece at The Federalist this week as this hearing
is going on in Washington, d C. Many miles away
on the West coast, in Los Angeles, you have the
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome holding a press
conference about the riots, the anti ICE riots taking place
in Los Angeles and the efforts of ICE to enforce
the laws, the raids on illegal immigrants, arresting violent illegal immigrants,
and who wanders in without you know, an invitation, in fact,
is if you look at the videos quite disorderly as
California Senator Alex Padilla, and he is taken out of
the room, as it has been expressed, forcibly removed for
creating a disturbance. He was there to ask a question.
He says, it looks pretty clear to me that he was.
Whatever happened, it was a disorderly incident, and one can
understand why the Secret Service, given the violence political violence
in America today, had concerns and removed this guy. And
then immediately it becomes this press feeding event, and one
could argue that was by design. This whole clip goes viral.
In fact, did they not the Democrats on this committee
at the hearing play the video clip after hearing? I
know they certainly responded to it and began gaslighting about
the hero that Alex Spadilla was. What went down at
that hearing and what did you think of it all?
Speaker 2: Well, the first time we heard about it was the
Democratic side came in and they wanted to submit this
video to the committee in animus consent or something they
call it, and they wanted to play it. So they
stopped the committee. The chairman allowed them. They played the
video like real I don't want to say real time,
but it was that afternoon, so they started playing that
video and then the first thing that happened, or at
least the first thing I went through my mind, was
I looked at my if I go, there's no way.
This was like a setup to derail this committee. I
think because the first they did, they ran in there
and they submitted the video, they played it for everybody.
Then they started talking about you know, what type of
administration this is that would do this to a sitting senator,
and you know, the committee kind of went that direction
for a while. So that maybe I'm cynical again, It's
just interesting to me that the timing and then that's
how this whole thing shook out within this committee hearing,
it just seemed very suspicious to me as all.
Speaker 1: So I don't think you. I don't think you're cynical.
You may be cynical. I think you have every right
to be cynical. I think that your experience was what
I think a lot of people felt too. Isn't this
interesting that this big moment where this California Democrat, leftist
senator who has been deriding the POWs and that's his position,
that's fine, But now he's pushing himself, inserting himself into
this press conference by the DHS secretary. Nobody knows that
he's coming, at least the Secret Service people protecting the secretary,
they have no idea. And then this big show that
goes on in an immediate press conference on the steps
from the Federal Building, and then every news outlet, every
accomplice news outlet, a corporate media news outlet, playing this
over and over again. And then you have Kathy Hokeel,
the governor of New York, who is just absolutely beside herself.
She's expressing absolute outrage. Toward the end of this hearing
about Padilla's removal from the press conference. She says, this,
regardless of what anyone does, to have someone like that,
that is to say, a US senator treated like a
common criminal, as if he was a threat, shocks the conscience.
Governor Hokel said, it shocks the conscience. She did not
to me, though, seemed as shocked Joe by the horrific
crimes committed by illegal immigrants in New York or fellow
blue states Illinois and Minnesota.
Speaker 2: How did you.
Speaker 1: Feel about that kind of rhetoric coming from these folks
as someone who has experienced what you have experienced.
Speaker 2: So a couple of things sitting there watching this sort
of unfold and hearing some of these words like you
just mentioned with Kathy Hokeel, Governor Hokel that I don't
even think well, so I know when she's being questioned
a lot of these people, she's like, oh, I didn't
know about that. Oh I don't know much about that.
I don't know anything about that, which I find disheartening,
Like shouldn't you as a governor when there's these tragedies
like this that happen and consistently are happening with If
you want to call him on documented whatever, we're going
to call him here in matt But aren't you even engage?
Couldn't you even muster up a like I am sorry,
this is happening. I have contacted the family let them
know that it's unfortunate. We're trying to sort this thing out.
We had a lot of issues over the last few
years and we're just trying to get this thing done.
It not only was ignored, it was just like it
never happened. So yeah, it's very frustrating, Just like with JB. Pritzker,
Governor Pritzker on my end when the committee said, would
you like us to ask him to apologize to you?
And I said, well, I really would rather not. He's
it's been six months. He hasn't. I haven't heard a
word about anything on this. I don't want him to
feel coerse, so I assume he just wouldn't like acknowledge
me and say I'm sorry, because it doesn't really mean anything.
We don't need to have to go through that show.
But how they can do that? Now? The other thing
I've thought was really weird watching that video Number one,
you know, if he wants to be this common man,
and then you know, because he was, that's a certain
way he is behaving a certain way to me, not
what a senator should be doing. I mean, that's something
like to your point, like just some bum off the
street would come in Russian people and interrupting rudely like that.
That's not good character. You're not dressed properly, you're not
addressing anyone. Probably you're not acknowledging yourself. That's not the
way to do. And how do you think that's going
to play out? Exactly? So if you're going to be
the senator, like, how could this happen to a US senator? Well,
behave like a US senator and I suspect nothing would happen.
But I don't. Again, sitting there, I don't think that's
what they wanted. They wanted something they could come in
and say, oh, by the way, look at what happened.
What the Trump administration is doing. The other thing I
found very disheartening was and I won't talk to anybody,
regardless of policy or what political persuasion you're at. Not one,
not one Democrat came to even say hello, it's not
Illinois representatives, not any Democratic representative. One. I had a bunch.
I've talked to a bunch of the Republican representatives, which
are nice. Again, I would have loved to talk to
the Democrats too, but not one acknowledge me, so that
that would sort of and I don't think I was
in a position to get out of my seat and
go go see them, right, that's not what you would do, right,
But I thought that was disappointing.
Speaker 1: We can understand that, particularly having reported on your story
gotten to know you over the last several months. This
is more well beyond politics. It is not, I should say,
it is not politics for you. It is a father
who is trying to keep his daughter's memory alive and
fight for her now that she has no voice. You
are trying to do what is right in the memory
of your daughter, and ultimately so that no father, no
mother has to go through what you have gone through.
So close with the question, because you've talked about this
a lot. The words that you've been hearing from Democrats
like JB. Pritzker and Kathy Hokeel and Tim Walls and
some of the others when they're in defense of the
illegal immigrants who are being apprehended and deported. The language
that they're using is that they're being disappeared, they're being taken,
they're being stolen, kidnapped. These are the sorts of words
that they're using, of course, all pitched for the highest
political rhetoric that you can imagine. What do you think
when you hear these kinds of words when basically what
is happening at the end of the day is federal
law enforcement officials are enforcing the law. People broke the
law and they're either going to have to go through
the criminal justice process or they're going to be removed
from the country because they shouldn't have been here in
the beginning. But you, as someone who has experienced what
you have, what goes through your mind.
Speaker 2: So I think, and we've talked about this before, I
think this is the one thing that really strikes a
nerve with me is that you know this constant. You know,
you probably broke three federal laws, right, I mean, you
broke the federal law when you came into the country legally,
you broke a law by residing, and then you broke
a law by getting documentation. Right, So it seems to
me you're zero for three. And then we expect you
to be and no consequences, and then we expect you
to be a really good citizen, so that that doesn't
kind of connect with me. And then yes, so this
is the one that strikes a nerve because Katie never
got to do process. Katie was you know, they talk
about disappear and snatched and this thing, and they have
to Katie was disappeared, she was snatched, she was taken,
whatever word you want to use from me. We have
been separated. My family's been separated. No one seems to
care about that or make that connection. The difference, Matt,
that why kind of irks me and sticks in my
craw is that Katie has been separated from me and
disappeared from me. Forever. I will never see my little
girl again. Forever I will never see her beautiful smile,
hear her terrific laugh, be part of her engaging personality. Ever, again,
she's not in a detention center. She's not in another country. God,
I wish I was. I wish she was, because then
I can still see her. But she's none of that.
She didn't break any laws. She just got taken away,
disappeared forever. So yes, this is the one thing that
really strikes in her. And I'm sorry, I get a
little elevated, but it strikes in her because it's not right.
It's not right. She got no due process and she
has been completely taken away and disappeared from us. And
it seems to be like that's okay.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely right, you have no need to apologize.
There were people there last week who truly do need
to apologize. Again, as you say, what does it matter
now your daughter, your youngest, your beloved Katie has been disappeared. Really,
there's unlike the people who have been here illegally and
moved back to their country of origin, their families can
still at some level have the ability to connect with
them while they are on this plane. You, as opposed
to others who have broken the law here in this
country have a life sentence, and well with all the
social justice warriors out there and the No King's Audience
or the No King's movement so to speak, you know,
you are dealing with an absolute lack of due process
when it comes to a loved one. And I'm sorry
that you have to go through this, but I am
hoping that people like you standing up sharing your stories
will help the policymakers understand what's at stake so that
nobody has to go through this again.
Speaker 2: That's the hope. Yeah, And when Governor Pritzker's in the
committee saying that these people who commit crimes will see justice,
there won't be real justice in the Illinois I mean
I think that that right now, law enforcement and the
state's attorney and the federal attorney here in Illinois are
doing great. I'm really hopeful, but even if they get
the maximum Matt, it's not real justice. So you know, unfortunately,
if we just have taken care of things the right way,
have the right process, a lot of folks wouldn't be
going through this. That's all my point there.
Speaker 1: Is absolutely thanks to my guest today, Joe Abraham, as
I said before, he's no politician no powerful bureaucrat, author,
or celebrity. Joe is a dad from Glenview, Illinois, who
tragically lost his daughter in January in a car crash,
and police say eighties killer. His daughter's killer was an
I legal immigrant who had previously been deported. Ultimately, these
are the stories that Americans, policymakers in particular, need to
hear over and over again to arrive at whatever justice
looks like. Now you've been listening to another edition of
The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittlesenior Elections correspondent at
the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then,
stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the frame.
Speaker 2: I heard the fame voice the Reason, and then it
faded away.