Americans Pay The Price For Disastrous Immigration Policies

Americans are paying dearly for the Biden administration’s open-border policies that indiscriminately allowed rapists, murderers, and terrorists to walk right in. We’re paying the bill daily. Just ask the families of the two National Guard members that federal officials say were shot by an Afghan national in an ambush-style attack while they were helping protect the nation’s capital. 

As The Federalist has reported, Joe Abraham and his family have, too, paid the highest price for the politically-driven decisions by federal, state, and local politicians who thought little of — or worse, didn’t care — what might happen following the flood of illegal immigrants during Joe Biden’s presidency. As Abraham goes through the inadequate legal process in search of some semblance of justice for the daughter he lost at the hands of an illegal alien, he grows more frustrated by what he has learned. And by what he hasn’t. 

The suburban Chicago man sees plenty of blame to go around, much of it on the shoulders of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a far-left Democrat who has treated criminal immigrants better than the victims they’ve claimed. 

“Just because the Biden administration was reckless does that mean the states individually have to become just as reckless? That’s what I don’t understand,” Abraham told The Federalist in an interview this week. 

‘Buckets of Beer’

Last week, Guatemalan national Julio Cucul-Bol appeared for his arraignment on federal charges of lying to obtain a green card, possessing a false Social Security Card, and falsely using a passport. The 30-year-old felon faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. 

Abraham was at the federal courthouse in Urbana, Illinois, much like he was through the many state court proceedings that eventually led to Bol’s plea deal and sentence for taking the lives of Abraham’s daughter, 20-year-old Katie Abraham, and her friend, 21-year-old Chloe Polzin, in a drunken car crash earlier this year.  

The young women were in the backseat of a vehicle stopped at a red light when the the illegal immigrant’s SUV slammed into the car at nearly 80 miles per hour near the University of Illinois campus. Three others in the car were injured. 

Bol fled on foot from the scene but was eventually apprehended in Texas on his way to the border. Law enforcement officials said he was carrying false identification claiming he was a Mexican national. The state’s attorney prosecuting the case said Bol had been to three bars before the deadly January crash, and investigators found open cans of beer in his abandoned vehicle. 

“Surveillance footage obtained from the last two bars showed Bol consumed multiple mixed drinks and shared buckets of beer with his roommate,” WCIA reported. 

Licensed to Kill

Joe Abraham said he learned at Bol’s arraignment that the illegal immigrant couldn’t speak English and knew minimal Spanish. But he does speak fluent q’eqchi’, a language of Mayan people who live in the remote mountainous regions of Guatemala. 

The News-Gazette in February reported that Bol’s state arraignment was delayed when the judge learned that the illegal alien’s interpreter could translate k’iche’, not q’eqchi’. “The names of the two languages sound similar, but the interpreter said that the languages themselves are completely different,” the news outlet noted. 

So how in the hell did this guy get a license? Abraham wants to know. How could he pass the exam? How could he read the road signs? Abraham said officials from the Department of Homeland Security told him they would look into the matter. He hasn’t heard back yet. 

In 2024, an Illinois law allowing “undocumented” people to obtain a standard driver’s license went into effect. It replaced the Temporary Visitor Driver’s License. There was nothing “temporary” about Bol’s stay in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois’ generous new law also allows individuals with refugee and asylum status to receive REAL IDs. 

“The standard license will be the same license that is issued to other Illinois drivers that do not comply with the federal REAL ID license requirements,” Illinois Legal Aid states on its website. “It will be marked ‘Federal Limits Apply’ and cannot be used for federal identification or as a REAL ID. You cannot use the standard driver’s license for boarding a plane or entering federal buildings. The standard driver’s license is valid for 4 years.”

Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg last month introduced a bill that would block licenses for illegal immigrants. The proposal, following yet another fatal crash involving an illegal immigrant, would require driver’s license and permit applicants to affirm that they can read and right English. 

Abraham said his open records requests to government agencies seeking information on Bol have gone nowhere. 

‘Compassionate’ Treatment

The Angel Parent did learn in court that Bol has tested positive for HIV. Federal officials sought to have the illegal immigrant remanded to their custody, but Abraham said the state did not want to turn Bol over because the change would interfere with his HIV treatments. Abraham said federal prosecutors and Bol’s public defender worked out a deal that for now will keep Bol at Illinois’ Hill Correctional Center, where he is serving a sentence of 30 years for his convictions related to the deadly crash. 

Abraham said the health consideration raises more questions and is another indictment of negligence on the part of the government. 

“How do we not know that he wasn’t out roving around? Was he as reckless with [his disease] as he was behind the wheel of a vehicle that killed my daughter?” Abraham said. “How compassionate is Illinois to not even look into these folks to know their health?” 

The Democrats leading Illinois have shown they have limitless “compassion” for illegal immigrants, but very little for the victims of crimes committed by the “newcomers.” Beginning next month, undocumented students residing in Illinois will be able to receive state financial aid thanks to a law that Pritzker recently signed. As WTVO reported, the law “extends eligibility for grants, scholarships, stipends, and other state funded student aid to all Illinois residents regardless of immigration status.”

“With Illinois families already burdened by some of the highest taxes in the nation, they will now be forced to subsidize college aid for individuals who are not citizens,” State Senator Li Arellano Jr said in a statement. 

‘A Horrible Situation’

Over the better part of the last year, since Katie’s senseless death, Joe Abraham has gotten to know a number of Angel Parents like him, and he’s been an advocate for reform and accountability — so not another parent has do endure what he has. So many have. 

Last month, 19-year-old Eduardo Parra-Corral, an illegal immigrant, was driving more than 100 mph when he ran a red light in Greeley, Colorado, according to police. The vehicle he was driving plowed into another driven by 27-year-old Jasmine Faith Carpio, who died at he hospital (where she worked) five days later, Fox News Digital reported. 

Another sanctuary state, another senseless death. 

“This is a horrific situation, but one we’ve seen play out across Colorado and across the United States,” Douglas County District Attorney and longtime Denver-area prosecutor George Brauchler told the news outlet. “Imagine the amount of crime that would go away if we didn’t have someone like this on our streets killing people.”

As he began his disastrous term in office, President Joe Biden reversed his predecessor’s executive order calling for federal agencies to “employ all lawful means to enforce the immigration laws of the United States” and opened the door to millions of under- or unvetted illegal aliens, the cost is mounting for Americans, particularly in sanctuary jurisdictions. But the full bill is a long way from being tallied. 

“I’m not the only one,” Abraham said. “I feel terrible others have to go through this because our government is wilfully neglectful.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.