The fourth-annual National Day of Remembrance was held to honor Americans killed by illegal immigrants . The November 2 event included ceremonies held around the country via The Remembrance Day project. The organization is reportedly dedicated to educating the public and making citizens more aware of the “human cost” involved with the failure to fully enforce immigration laws in the United States.
The deaths at the hands of illegal immigrants range from drunk driving incidents to homicide. The Remembrance Project Massachusetts state director Maureen Maloney lost her son in a hit and run incident sparked by an illegal alien driver. In 2011, Matthew Denice was hit by Luis Guaman – an illegal immigrant. Denice survived the initial collision, but was then dragged a quarter of a mile to his death by Guaman as he attempted to flee the scene. Before the vehicular homicide, the illegal alien reportedly had been arrested at least three times for driving an unlicensed vehicle and had completed a year of probation for assaulting two police officers.
Richard Grossi was killed in 2009 not far from where Denice lost his life. An immigrant who illegally overstayed her visa reportedly ran a stoplight and crashed into Grossi. Maria Leite was initially sentenced to two years in jail for vehicular homicide, but ultimately decided to accept a plea deal which allowed her to be deported as a non-criminal. When Marueen Laquerre was asked by the media if anything had changed in relation to the enforcement of the immigration policy, since her brother’s death, she said, “only the death toll.”
Remembrance Project National Director Maria Espinoza urged President Barack Obama to direct federal funding to American families who have lost a loved one to an illegal immigrant crime for the purposes of restitution and educational efforts. Espinoza said the funding could stem from fees acquired Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) work permit program.
“The redistribution of these funds to our victim families, in accordance with an already established formula of victim compensation, will provide hope to all aggrieved American families that their American leader truly understands their plight and that you will, as the First Lady often says, place ‘American families first,” Espinoza said.
The Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC website has an online memorial to the hundreds who have died due to crimes reportedly committed by illegal immigrants – multiple law enforcement officers, children and babies are included on the list.
What do you think about the National Day of Remembrance for Americans killed by illegal immigrants?
[Image via: NBC ]