Trump links migrant crime to 2020 'rigged' vote at Angel Families Remembrance Ceremony

Speaking at the Angel Families Remembrance Ceremony at the White House, President Donald Trump reiterated his claims that the 2020 elections were being rigged. "If that election wasn't rigged, every single one of the people in this room right now would not be here. You'd be home with your son, daughter, family," Trump said, claiming that it was "a rigged election by millions and millions of votes." 

"We did great in that election….We had a strong border. You know, we solved it twice. We solved it in 2016; the border was bad, but nothing like it was this time. It was like beautiful compared to this time. This was legendary in the history of the world. There's never been a border like this where millions of people poured in—at least 25 million people," Trump said at the ceremony held to honor Americans who lost family members to crime caused by immigrants. 

Trump officially signed a proclamation designating February 22 as National Angel Family Day, timed to the anniversary of the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. "These are the angel families that we love, that for decades our government betrayed and our media totally ignored," Trump said. He invited several family members to the podium, including Laken Riley's mother, Allison Phillips, and Steve Ronbeck, whose son Grant was killed in Arizona. "Everyone in this room not only suffered an infinite loss, they were the victims of politicians who put the comfort of foreign criminals before the safety of American citizens," Trump said. 

The ceremony served as a high-profile precursor to the President's State of the Union address on February 24. Analysts have suggested that Trump's attempts to link undocumented immigrants to a deteriorating law and order situation are setting the stage for a speech expected to focus heavily on immigration enforcement and his administration's "nationalization" of election security. "We restored our border and that’s now totally secure and our country is at the safest level it’s been in many years," Trump asserted in his address, framing the upcoming legislative year as a continuation of this "America First" agenda.

"The human cost of the migrant crime crisis is written in the lives of Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin, who were brutally attacked and murdered by savage illegal aliens, and in the lives of Matthew Denice, Sarah Root, and Ivory Smith, killed by drunk-driving illegal aliens," The President said in a statement shared by the White House, promising to remove "dangerous illegal alien criminals" from the nation to prevent such "senseless tragedies from happening again."

Meanwhile, a group of Democratic lawmakers has announced that they will not be attending this year's State of the Union. Accusing Trump of using the platform to "spread lies," the lawmakers, including senators Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Chris Murphy (Connecticut), and Tina Smith (Minnesota), will instead be attending a rally on the National Mall dubbed the "People’s State of the Union."