A lot of good information in this post! Please take the time to read it.

 

'Second-class citizens': Angel Families describe two-tiered justice system for illegal immigrants

"Angel Families" refers to those who have lost loved ones to violent crimes committed by individuals who are in the United States unlawfully or have a history of illegal entry. Despite President Donald Trump's focus on illegal immigration in his second term, many families are still seeking justice for their loved ones.

By Ashe Short justthenews.com 7-2-26

President Donald Trump has made fighting illegal immigration the centerpiece of his second administration, but for too many families across the country, finding justice has been elusive.

Many illegal immigrants who have committed crimes have escaped justice under the Biden administration, while the families of the victims faced ineffective investigations, protracted legal cases, and, in some cases, saw the perpetrators receive light prison sentences.

“These people are shown so many privileges in this country and American citizens are really considered, in my opinion, second-class citizens when it comes to crimes committed against them by illegals,” says Mary Ann Mendoza, whose police officer son was killed in 2014 in a head-on collision by an illegal immigrant.

Families torn apart by illegal immigrants who were never caught

Mendoza, who founded Angel Families, spoke to Just the News about the Inman family, who were irreparably broken after a fishing trip in 2000 in which an illegal immigrant crashed into their car, killing 16-year-old Dustin and the family dog. Dustin’s mother, Kathy, was in a coma for weeks following the crash, and remained in a wheelchair until she died in 2021 from complications caused by the car accident. The Inman family says that Dustin’s father, Billy, was in the hospital so long he wasn’t able to attend his son’s funeral. He died of a heart attack in 2019, which Mendoza believes was caused by the stress he faced in the decades following the crash and death of his son.

The illegal immigrant who caused the crash, Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, fled to Mexico after the crash but continued to cross between the U.S. and Mexico for several years without being arrested. He was indicted by a grand jury in January 2001 and was placed on ICE’s “Most Wanted” list before being removed during the Biden administration, as noted by the Center for Immigration Studies. He is still a fugitive.

The Inmans are not alone when it comes to a lack of justice. Joe Storie, 51, was killed on October 5, 2011, when Luis Alberto Rodriguez-Castro ran a flashing red light and hit Joe, his sister, and his wife. Joe’s sister and wife survived the crash but were critically injured. Rodriguez-Castro was also injured in the crash and taken to a nearby hospital, where he escaped from police supervision but was later recaptured. Even though Rodriguez-Castro was deemed a flight risk by the prosecution, a Georgia superior court judge granted him a bond reduction, and he was allowed to remain out of prison. He subsequently missed a court date and vanished. Rodriguez-Castro remains on ICE’s “Most Wanted” list.

Blake Zieto, 20, was killed in a 2006 head-on crash by Mexican national Jesus Maltos-Chacon, who fled and has remained a fugitive for the past 20 years. Maltos-Chacon’s name was removed from the ICE “Most Wanted” list under the Biden administration but re-added on April 27, 2026. He remains at large.

The high emotional cost to Angel Families in sanctuary states

Hailey King was just 18 years old when she was riding on the back of her friend’s scooter on November 7, 2016. According to a crash reconstructionist hired by her mother, King and her friend were hit by an illegal immigrant driving 71 miles per hour in a 35mph zone. Hailey ended up on the hood of Sergio Rodriguez-Larios’ truck, while her friend, David, was pinned underneath. David lost both of his legs in the accident and died a few years later. Hailey died at the scene.

Her mother, Kathy Hall, tells Just the News that the black box was never recovered from Rodriguez-Larios’ truck, and no autopsy was performed on Hailey. Rodriguez-Larios was initially charged with second-degree murder and faced 58 years in prison, but was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter and received just 17 years – 10 years for killing Hailey, 5 for injuring David, and 2 for fleeing the scene of the crash.

Rodriguez-Larios was one-and-a-half years into his sentence when he first came up for parole. Now Hailey’s family has to go to a new parole hearing every other year to ensure he actually remains in prison for his crimes.

“There is no justice in that,” Kathy tells Just the News. “We have not been able to heal because we can’t stop reliving it.”

In a similar case, Patti Fox’s daughter Carissa was riding on the back of her friend’s motorcycle in 2025 when they were hit by an illegal immigrant who had run a stop sign and crossed three lanes of traffic. The illegal, Valeria De Los Angeles Bermudez Marcano, and the passengers in her car got out after the crash and quickly fled, abandoning the vehicle, according to Fox.

Carissa was flung into a concrete barrier, which “obliterated” the left hemisphere of her brain, Fox tells Just the News. The grieving mother also says that the driver of the motorcycle Carissa was on was given a breathalyzer test, but when Marcano turned herself in the next day, she refused to take a breathalyzer and was never tested. She was released within days without the district attorney's or victim’s advocate’s knowledge, Fox says. 

Fox also says she was told initially that the occupants of the other vehicle were U.S. citizens, but after months of not hearing about any advancements in the case, she learned that ICE was involved. 

Over many months, Marcano would receive seven continuances, have five charges reduced to one, and only be required to pay restitution to the driver of the motorcycle, not Carissa, who remains in a wheelchair, is non-verbal, and requires a feeding tube. During Marcano’s eighth arraignment, Fox says she brought Carissa to the court so that they could see her daughter’s condition. At that time, Marcano took a plea deal, which was not discussed with the victim’s families, according to Fox.

“I don’t think Americans realize how different the experiences are between citizens and when they’re charged versus illegal aliens and when they’re charged,” Fox says.

She also says that she and her husband had been in a car accident shortly before Carissa, but the U.S. citizen in that case had “the book thrown” at him. He received multiple charges and the case was resolved in a matter of weeks, unlike her daughter’s case with an illegal immigrant.

Fox realized that, in a sanctuary state like Colorado, Marcano likely wouldn’t see any serious prison time for her crime, so she says she reached out to the Trump administration’s hotline for families impacted by illegal immigrants and “within days,” Marcano was deported.

Chrishia Odette was 13 years old when she was hit by an illegal immigrant with outstanding warrants. Her father, Chris, tells Just the News that the only charge Ramiro Guevara received for killing his daughter was a ticket for driving without a license, for which he was already wanted. He reportedly spent a mere 35 minutes in jail and posted a cash bond. He remained free for years and became a fugitive from ICE.

"Court system like a revolving door" for illegal immigrants, Angel Mom says

“I grew up believing the justice system was meant to put killers behind bars. I served the country believing in law and justice,” Chris tells Just the News.

Lacey Marie Ferguson was fatally shot on August 24, 2003, outside a convenience store in Modesto, California, by an illegal immigrant gang member. Her case went cold but was reopened in 2014 following pressure from her mother, Boni Driskill. The suspect, David Aguilar, had been arrested around a dozen times prior to Lacey’s murder. He was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 61 years to life, plus life, Boni tells Just the News.

“He went through the court system like a revolving door, being repetitive with another crime, another crime, another crime, and I found twelve times where they could have at any point, you know, saved my daughter’s life,” Boni tells Just the News. “And they failed to do it.” I understand something will fall through the cracks once, twice, maybe even three times, but 12 times is wanton disregard.”

Fentanyl poisonings part of border security but not investigated

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids account for nearly 70% of all overdose deaths in the U.S., according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that Mexico and China are the primary source countries trafficking fentanyl into the U.S., yet so many fentanyl deaths are not fully investigated.

Families of those who have died due to fentanyl poisoning are included in the Angel Families definition because it is a trafficked substance and thus part of border security.

Laura Woody lost her son Jimmy in 2021, telling Just the News that his death wasn’t investigated because her son was a drug addict. She found evidence that the coroner called her son “just a druggie,” and the people who sold him the substance were never found. “Having a substance use disorder does not void a person’s right to justice,” Laura says, adding that the judicial system treats drug addicts as “less than human.”

She says that a police report wasn’t even written for her son until a week after he was found dead when she asked for the report. She also says it was full of incorrect information that was written from memory, and questions why these deaths aren’t investigated to find the dealers and those above them responsible for trafficking fentanyl.

“Every death could have been prevented if the previous one had been investigated,” she tells Just the News.

Debbie Santini also lost her son to fentanyl, but says the circumstances surrounding his death are suspicious, yet police didn’t conduct a full investigation. Her son, Jesse, died on February 16, 2022, just five days after entering a recovery house. Even though there were 10 people in the house besides Jesse, only four were interviewed, and Jesse’s name was spelled incorrectly throughout the police report.

“They did not even care to spell my child’s name right,” Debbie tells Just the News.

Debbie dealt with rotating investigators and never found the answers to how her son died in a house full of people without any drugs around him. She also says her son was shy and wouldn’t have used drugs in such a crowded house, that he would have gone to his vehicle or another private place, yet her suspicions were never answered.

"Living with a permanent hole in our lives"

The men and women who make up the Angel Families have previously written to Congress seeking a border fence, more Border Patrol agents and deportations, detention expansion, and screening of unaccompanied minors for gang ties.

“Every single one of us is living with a permanent hole in our lives because an illegal immigrant, who never should have been in this country, was allowed to stay and take an innocent life,” the families wrote through the American Border Story, a conservative-leaning 501(c)(4) nonprofit that tells their stories. “These were preventable tragedies.”

 

This specific element of illegal immigration has been with us for decades. 'Birthright citizenship' is total insanity, a wrongful interepretation of the 14th Amendment to The United States Constitution.

 

Trump’s efforts to reverse birthright citizenship may succeed with or without SCOTUS

Several bills, most notably the Birthright Citizenship Act in 2025, seek to end or sharply restrict automatic birthright citizenship by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act. Will it pass constitutional muster?

By Amanda Head  justthenews.com 6-30-26

The Supreme Court is expected to rule Tuesday in Trump v. Barbara, a high-stakes challenge to President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order that seeks to restrict automatic birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment for children of illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders. In the event the court rules against Trump, a number of Congressional Republicans have legislation pending that could practically accomplish what a different ruling would have done.

"American citizenship is a priceless privilege that must be protected, not exploited. We must restore integrity to our immigration system, uphold the rule of law, and protect the value of American citizenship for generations to come," Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, told Just The News. 

Several bills, most notably the Birthright Citizenship Act introduced by Babin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one day after Trump's inauguration in 2025 (and similar versions in recent Congresses), seek to end or sharply restrict automatic birthright citizenship by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). 

These measures would reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause to grant citizenship at birth only to children with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident (LPR) residing in the U.S., or an LPR serving in the military. 

CIS: 225,000 to 250,000 births to illegal immigrants occurred in 2023

The exploitation of U.S. birthright citizenship through “anchor babies” involves pregnant illegal immigrants, predominantly from Latin America, giving birth to children in U.S. territory, and thus, automatically becoming citizens, which may later serve as a basis for family sponsorship or complicate deportation proceedings. 

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates 225,000 to 250,000 births to illegal immigrants occurred in 2023—nearly 7 percent of total U.S. births — with the large majority involving parents from Mexico and Central America who, in the aggregate, account for roughly 68 percent of the unauthorized population.   

While minor U.S.-citizen children cannot sponsor parents until age 21 (per 1976 amendments to immigration law), critics have argued that these births create long-term “anchors” for chain migration and mixed-status households, generating substantial taxpayer costs for education, healthcare and welfare while raising questions about enforcement priorities in families with citizen children. 

Estimates suggest millions of U.S.-born children of unauthorized Latin American immigrants now reside in the country.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The birthright citizenship bonanza

Birthright citizenship abuse via birth tourism, when foreign nationals travel to the United States on temporary visas specifically to give birth, is an issue that Trump addressed early in his second term.

Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer detailed this practice extensively in his 2026 book, "The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon," in which he described how China has industrialized the practice on a large scale through an organized industry. 

Chinese officials have estimated around 50,000 Chinese nationals per year give birth in the U.S. or territories like Saipan, while some scholars place the figure closer to 100,000 annually, according to Marketplace’s China.

Schweizer reports more than 1,000 birth tourism companies operate in China focused on the U.S., offering concierge packages costing up to $100,000 that include visa guidance, medical arrangements, and sometimes instructions on concealing pregnancies or claiming indigent to reduce hospital bills. 

China leads this activity by a wide margin, but Russia has also participated notably, with dedicated firms in South Florida like Miami Mama. South Florida NBC affiliate NBC6 reported that Miami Mama LLC was raided by the FBI in 2017 and has been operating in Miami since 2009. The company offers packages ranging from just under $20,000 to over $53,000 that include all the medicines and procedures that come along with childbirth. NBC also noted that the owner was never convicted of the business's operations.

Independent estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies suggest total U.S. birth tourism births range from about 20,000–36,000 annually in recent years (a small fraction of overall U.S. births), though precise official figures are unavailable because the U.S. does not systematically track parents’ nationalities or travel intent on birth certificates  

The CDC has reported roughly 9,600 births to foreign mothers listing addresses outside the U.S. and territories in 2024 as one limited proxy.

Aside from legislation to end birthright citizenship, there are other bills proposed to end the birth tourism industry. These bills would disrupt profit-driven networks arranging travel, housing, medical care and visas for pregnant foreigners seeking U.S. citizenship for their children. 

Key bills include Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s Ban Birth Tourism Act (S. 1812, 2025), which amends the INA to deem such visitors inadmissible on B visas, and Sen. John Cornyn’s BACK OFF Act (2026), which imposes criminal penalties on facilitators for fraud and organized schemes while creating a dedicated enforcement task force. 

Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just The News. You can follow her here. 

 

Definitely! Words have meaning and how they are used makes all the difference!

 

When Extremists Run the Government

Two can certainly play the “extremist” game.

J.B. Shurk | June 26, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

Politicians, government bureaucrats, central bankers, spy agencies, and mainstream news outlets lie to us every day.  For some people, the previous sentence is patently obvious.  For others, that sentence represents “fringe” thinking.  For certain law enforcement agencies in North America and Europe, that sentence reveals potentially dangerous “extremism.”  

“Extremism” is such a morally squishy word.  It means nothing.  It suggests that the average beliefs of the average person in the average part of an average town are, on average, correct.  Should a person’s beliefs move too far away from the “average,” then that person will eventually fall into the “extremist” abyss.  Of course, the average person long believed that the sun and planets revolved around the Earth.  The average person long believed that bloodletting cured disease. The average person long believed in magic.  Relativity, microbiology, atomic physics, and quantum mechanics belonged to the “extremists.” 

Defining “extremism” depends upon which populations are included when calculating an “average.”  To the average American, Islamic terrorism is religious extremism.  To the average jihadi in the Middle East, terrorism is part of the Islamic faith.  One man’s “extremist” is another man’s “religious cleric.”  Unsurprisingly, as more jihadists migrate to America, the more supportive of Islamic terrorism the Democrat Party becomes.  We now have several Hamas-supporting members of Congress who define Americans opposed to Islamic conquest as “extremists.”  For a decade, Americans were told to be on the lookout for Islamic terrorism: “If you see something, say something.”  Now, if you see something and say something, you will most likely be denounced as an “Islamophobic bigot.”  If the definition of “extremism” can shift 180 degrees since the Islamic terror attacks on September 11, 2001, then “extremism” is a nebulous political label.

In the United States, citizens overwhelmingly support federal legislation that would require photo ID, proof of citizenship, and other safeguards to ensure that elections across the country are free, fair, lawful, constitutional, and secure.  Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans in Congress prefer to maintain the current “on your honor” system that can be gamed to permit large-scale vote fraud and rigged elections.  By any polling measure, Congress’s point of view is far from that of the average American.  Members of Congress, in other words, are the extremists!  If you listen to the extremists in Congress, however, our elections have never been more secure.

In fact, when you look at some of the most important policy issues today, it becomes quite clear that Congress is ground zero for extremism.  Most Americans want Congress to stop spending more money than it receives in taxes; Congress has put us forty trillion dollars in debt.  Most Americans want secure borders and an end to illegal immigration; Congress has enabled an evil human trafficking system to exist for over fifty years that rewards criminals and has flooded the country with somewhere between fifty and a hundred million (nobody knows for sure!) illegal aliens.  Most Americans are concerned about lowering fuel and food prices; Congress has wasted trillions of dollars on “Green New Deal” scams that raise the household costs for fuel and food.  Most Americans believe that college admissions and job hiring should be based on a person’s merit, skill, character, knowledge, and hard work; Congress continues to divide Americans by the color of their skin and their sexual eccentricities.  Most Americans believe that men and women are biologically distinct; Congress pretends that biological sex is an imaginary social construct.  Most Americans believe that a dollar saved today should maintain the same value ten, fifty, or even a hundred years from now; Congress thinks printing and spending dollars, depreciating the U.S. currency, and artificially spiking the dollar-denominated valuation of stocks, homes, and other assets is the best way to fake a constantly “improving” economy.  Most Americans believe that we should refrain from military engagements overseas whenever possible; Congress can’t ever get enough of forever-wars.  Most Americans want their representatives to work for American citizens; Congress believes it should work on behalf of non-Americans all over the world.  Most Americans view their country as a nation; Congress views the United States as both a global empire and a home for every person on the planet.

On the most important issues, Congress is filled to the brim with extremists.  They should be put on official security lists and monitored whenever they travel more than fifty feet from their taxpayer-financed homes.  Instead, in the United States and throughout the West, the extremists run things.

That would explain why Christians are targeted for their beliefs.  That would explain why the governments of Europe and North America have flooded their countries with unassimilable malcontents from the third world.  That would explain why men are allowed into women’s restrooms and why pedophiles are accorded more respect than heterosexual married couples.  That would explain why Western governments have declared war on “climate change” when most people don’t care about elites’ obsession with the weather.  That would explain why so many European and North American politicians are willing to risk a nuclear war with the Russian Federation, while ordinary citizens have never been less willing to fight for the defense of their respective countries.

Perhaps the more that ordinary Westerners realize that it is the people running their governments, universities, and bureaucratic institutions who are most extreme, the less willing they become to do what those extremists say.  Six years ago, the extremists locked down the world because of COVID.  They closed churches, bankrupted businesses, disrupted childhood education, prevented family members from being together, and killed a lot of people with fake “vaccines.”  If public health extremists tried to pull another COVID today, would ordinary Westerners do what the politicians and bureaucrats say?  Or would Western citizens conclude that extremist governments endanger both their lives and liberties?

Two can certainly play the “extremist” game.  Two-hundred-fifty years ago, the British Empire believed the patriots of America’s thirteen colonies to be extremists.  The patriots disagreed.  They considered it extreme for members of Parliament to make decisions on their behalf while residing 3,500 miles away.  The two sets of “extremists” fought it out, and we American “extremists” now celebrate July 4 as Independence Day. 

My question is this: How much longer can the governments of Europe and North America continue to ignore the wishes of their national populations before we find ourselves in a situation where there is an explosion of public declarations of independence from the political and bureaucratic extremists who have ruined people’s lives?  For, as much as Western governments appear to be betting on mass surveillance, central bank digital currencies, censorship, propaganda, and technocratic oppression as weapons of control to help maintain power well into the future, there’s nothing so unpredictable as a fed-up populace ready for a little revolution.  When enough people recognize themselves as average representatives of the public will and their government officials as extremists representing only their own interests, things get interesting.  Being labeled an “extremist” by government extremists means nothing.

One might even ask: Isn’t globalism tantamount to extremism when a politician puts other nations’ interests ahead of his own?  Surely, when a government official undermines the nation he serves by championing open borders policies or wasting taxpayer dollars on “climate change” boondoggles at the U.N., that official deserves to be labeled an “extremist.”  Globalists certainly don’t represent the average North American or European citizen.  But they do represent the average cosmopolitan bureaucrat who sees no country as home.  

In a world of nations whose populations require different things, globalism is extremist.  In a world of varying cultures and competing beliefs, forced multiculturalism is extremist.  In a world where some people wish to be free, international government is extremist.  

Fighting for liberty is not extremist.  It is government tyranny that is extreme.