There’s No ‘Sanctuary’ For Family Of Katie Abraham

As Joe Abraham fights for justice for his daughter Katie and victims like her, the suburban Chicago father isn’t holding out much hope in “sanctuary” Illinois. 

Katie Abraham was killed in a car crash near the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana the weekend of Jan. 18. She was 20 years old. 

Her killer, according to police, was a previously-deported illegal alien who was allegedly drunk when he slammed his SUV into the driver’s side of the vehicle Katie’s friend was driving as it was stopped at a red light. Julio Cucul-Bol, a 29-year-old Guatemalan national, was driving 78 miles per hour when his vehicle collided with the Honda Civic, Champaign State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said at the suspect’s arraignment, according to WCIA. Rietz said Cucul-Bol applied the brakes about a half a second before the collision; he made “little to no attempt to steer out of the way” of the car filled with four college-aged students, including 21-year-old Chloe Polzin, who died at the hospital from her injuries. 

Cucul-Bol immediately fled the scene. When U.S. Marshals ultimately apprehended him days later, he was about an hour south of Dallas, Texas, en route to the U.S. southern border, according to federal law enforcement officials. Upon his arrest, the illegal immigrant gave police a phony name, Juan Jahaziel Saenz-Suarez. His falsified paperwork claimed that he was a 27-year-old Mexican national residing in Urbana.

‘I Don’t Have Faith’

Back in Champaign County, Cucul-Bol is now facing multiple charges, including two counts of reckless homicide, a Class 3 Felony, two counts of leaving the scene of a personal injury crash resulting in death, a Class I Felony, and aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death, a Class 2 Felony. 

But Urbana, like Illinois, is a “sanctuary,” “welcoming” to illegal aliens and, critics charge, soft on illegal immigrant crime. Illinois laws prohibit local law enforcement from asking individuals about their immigration status and “detaining them because they lack status, and most notably, largely bar officers from cooperating with federal agents,” NPR reported earlier this year. Far-left Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose national political aspirations appear nearly as ravenous as his appetite, “has championed sanctuary city policies that have endangered Illinois families and cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., recently said in a statement.

“I don’t have faith we’re going to have a really good outcome in the state,” Abraham told me this week in an interview on the Vicki McKenna Show on 1310 WIBA in Madison, Wisconsin. 

‘Who’s Helping Him?’

Abraham does have higher hopes for accountability from the federal government. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury charged Cucul-Bol with multiple crimes, including possessing a false permanent resident card, possessing a false Social Security card, false use of a passport, and making a false statement on a bank application. The indictment accuses the illegal immigrant of falsely identifying himself as Jahaziel Saenz-Suarez in an application to JPMorgan Chase Bank, as well as falsely using a passport, according to the Department of Justice. 

“The indictment further alleges that on January 19, 2025, Cucul-Bol allegedly possessed a Permanent Resident Card that was false and a Social Security card that was false,” a DOJ press release states. 

Cucul-Bol could, if convicted, face up to 40 years in prison on all counts. 

But Abraham wants law enforcement authorities to dig deeper. He believes a network of some kind, individuals, perhaps organizations, assisted the illegal immigrant in his efforts to escape justice. 

“Who’s helping him? How did the money move around? … How did he almost get to the Mexican border? Who’s part of the process that helped him out?” Abraham said. 

The answer is manifold. Some very powerful people in leftist circles, including Democrat politicians and judges, have been accused of helping illegal immigrants, some charged with or convicted of horrific crimes, avoid arrest. Far-left lawmakers like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have advised illegal immigrants on how to evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. About an hour north of Abraham’s Glenview, Ill., home, social activist Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan has been charged with interference with a federal law enforcement operation and unlawful concealment of an individual subject to arrest. Dugan is accused of helping an illegal immigrant charged with serious domestic battery crimes elude federal agents who attempted to arrest the previously-deported alien outside of Dugan’s courtroom. Just days before her arrest, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a controversial memo to state employees advising them on how to slow-walk ICE officials. Evers’ memo caught the attention of Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan, who warned elected scofflaws not to “cross the line.” 

‘Katie Didn’t Get Any Due Process’

Democrats have decided to die on the political hill of full “due process” for criminally charged illegal immigrants. 

“Somehow we can follow some laws and we don’t have to follow other laws, but who’s accountable for this?” Abraham said. “You talk about this due process … Katie didn’t get any due process.”

 On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined Angel families at a press conference near Pritzker’s mansion and called on the rotund governor and other leftist leaders to “abandon their dangerous sanctuary policies.” 

“People who support sanctuary policies talk about love and compassion. Well, where’s the compassion for the families that stand behind me?” Noem said. 

Abraham is asking the same question. He’s spent a lot of sleepless nights in a long, cold winter into spring trying to square an absurd circle. There are no words, he said, to describe what it feels like to bury a child. Especially a young lady whose life was so full of promise, so imbued with love and joy. A young lady whose life was stolen from her in such a brutally heartless way. 

This grieving father sees a lot of accomplices in his daughter’s tragic death. 

“Do these folks not understand the pain and misery they’ve caused? And then they’re not even trying to rectify what they’ve wrought,” Abraham said. “It makes no sense to me. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since January.” 

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.