THE LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- The mother of a suburban college student whose death in a drunk-driving crash was held up as a rationale for the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown in Chicago lashed out at the White House for using her daughter's death to justify Operation Midway Blitz.
Katie Abraham was visiting a friend at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign last year when a drunk driver hit and killed her. Authorities say the driver was an undocumented immigrant, and the Trump Administration frequently cited her death as it rounded up migrants last fall, even producing a video with Katie's father Joe Abraham.
But her mother Denise Lorence told the Illinois Accountability Commission on Monday that the Trump Administration publicized her case without her consent.
"It's wrong for your child's name to be involved without both parents' input," Lorence told members of the commission during a hearing at the Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle Blvd. "They have erased me as Katie's mother."
Lorence says her "empathetic" daughter would have never wanted her life and death to be used as pretext for immigration enforcement, and called on the Administration to stop: "Her death should not serve as fuel and cover for the Trump Administration's political cover. It's time to finally let Katie rest in peace."
The Commission is releasing its findings all week.
We've asked the Department of Homeland Security for a response.
Suburban student's death cited during 'Midway Blitz'
Suburban student's death cited during 'Midway Blitz'
