Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) are introducing legislation Wednesday that would increase financial support and resources for angel families and victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens.
The Justice for Angel Families Act, a copy of which Breitbart News obtained in advance of the bill being introduced, would expand funding to angel families by amending the Crime Victims Fund. Angel families are immediate family members of those killed by illegal aliens.
The bill would also reinstate and codify the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office, a Trump-era Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiative that the Biden administration’s DHS, led by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, terminated in 2021 amid its efforts to distance the link between illegal aliens and violent crime.
Nehls, a former sheriff representing the state with the longest shared border with Mexico, ripped into President Joe Biden’s open borders posture in a statement about the bill, saying the president’s policies “are providing terrorists, murders, rapists, and other felons a no-strings attached invitation into our country, where they are no doubt committing violent crimes across our nation.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gestures as he speaks at a press briefing at the White House on September 24, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Sadly, relatives of these victims or next-of-kin are forced to bear the financial and emotional fall-out of these criminal acts, with no support from the current Administration,” Nehls added. “Our legislation will help to provide support to these families of illegal alien crime, as my colleagues across the aisle continue to put these violent criminals first.”
The bill has the backing of a slate of pro-border security and immigration reform groups and individuals, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Numbers USA, former Trump Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, and former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller.
FAIR, an ardent advocate of VOICE, praised the bill in a statement, saying Nehls and Marshall are “going the opposite route” of Biden by urging reinstatement of an office that offered services such as grief counseling and follow-up on criminal cases for angel families.
“[Nehls and Marshall] want a nation that is safe and secure and are trying to properly assist angel families, while making sure their loved ones did not die in vain. Everyone should join FAIR in backing the Justice for Angel Families Act, no matter your chamber or party affiliation,” FAIR spokesman RJ Hauman said.
Marshall noted in a statement Biden “disgracefully dismantled” the Trump administration’s VOICE Office and said he hopes the new legislation will “restore our angel families’ dignity and build on the support” they once had access to through the office.
Don Rosenberg, whose son Drew Rosenberg was killed by an illegal alien in 2010, now serves as president of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime. Rosenberg applauded the new legislation for working to ease “the financial burden that no family should face” while grieving the death of a family member.
The legislation has several other House Republicans, primarily from Texas, cosponsoring it, as well as Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Josh Hawley (R-MO).
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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