Grieving Illinois father condemns sanctuary ‘chaos,’ pleads for ‘common sense’ after daughter’s death

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Grieving Illinois father condemns sanctuary ‘chaos,’ pleads for ‘common sense’ after daughter’s death

Joe Abraham slammed blue state leaders as anti-ICE agitators clash with federal law enforcement in Minnesota

Taylor Penley Fox News

Published

January 22, 2026 8:28am EST

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Grieving father says daughter's death highlights cost of sanctuary city policies

Joe Abraham discusses the tragic death of his daughter Katie in a hit-and-run by an illegal immigrant in Illinois as he condemns anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.

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A grieving Illinois father blasted sanctuary city "chaos" on Thursday as protests rage in Minnesota, arguing that lax immigration enforcement cost his 20-year-old daughter her life.

"There’s no consideration for families like ours — just an innocent young girl killed in the streets of JB Pritzker’s Urbana, Illinois," Joe Abraham told "Fox & Friends First."

"When you nullify, as he did, federal immigration law, and then you don’t put in any process or guardrails, any common sense… basically what you’ve done is created your own immigration policy," he said. "That’s very disheartening."

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DHS launched 'Operation Midway Blitz' in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunk-driving, hit-and-run car crash caused by a criminal illegal alien in sanctuary Illinois. (Department of Homeland Security)

Abraham’s daughter, Katie, was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Jan. 2025 after a drunk-driving illegal alien slammed into the vehicle she was riding in with friends — a case that later prompted the Trump administration to launch "Operation Midway Blitz" in her honor.

A second young woman, 21-year-old Chloe Polzin of Deerfield, Illinois, died from her injuries the following day.

The driver, Julio Cucul-Bol, was a Guatemalan national using a Mexican alias, Abraham previously told Fox News Digital. He is serving a 30-year prison sentence after reaching a plea deal with the Champaign County State’s Attorney.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has also charged him with possessing a false Social Security card, possessing a false permanent resident card, making a false statement on a bank application and false use of a passport.

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President Donald Trump holds up a photo of Katie Abraham during an event in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

His entry into the U.S. was littered with problems, Abraham said, pointing to the lack of background and health screenings, as he cited court transcripts and documents noting that Cucul-Bol had HIV.

Abraham went on to accuse blue state leaders of enabling illegal immigration to inspire the Trump administration to take large-scale action and "deflect" from what is happening in their states.

"They don't want to cooperate [with the federal government]," he said.

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"They want to have all this kind of chaos to deflect from what's happening in the state, because really the only people that think the state is running well are the people that actually run the state."

Abraham's remarks come amid widespread tensions between federal authorities and anti-ICE agitators following the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good earlier this month in Minneapolis.

Fox News' Emma Bussey contributed to this report.

Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.

Grieving Illinois father condemns sanctuary ‘chaos,’ pleads for ‘common sense’ after daughter’s death