Laken Riley’s Mother Puts a Human Face on Border Failure at Angel Family Day

“Every year, thousands of American citizens are victimized by dangerous and criminal illegal aliens, often sent here by their home countries to get them out of their prisons or off their own streets,” Trump said in his proclamation. “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. Each of these lives and countless others were stolen by criminal illegal aliens who should have never been in our country.”

Trump honored angel families on Monday at a remembrance ceremony at the White House. During the event, Riley’s mother, Alyson Phillips, spoke, delivering remarks that cut straight to the heart of what his border security push actually means to the families who have paid the ultimate price for years of federal negligence.

Phillips made clear that her support for Trump is both personal and earned. "I think that a lot of people feel like that President Trump is maybe different than the person I've gotten to know," she said, "and I just can't thank you enough."

She reminded the room that Trump's commitment to Laken's memory predates his return to the Oval Office. He was still a private citizen when he first pledged not to forget her daughter. "You have said from the beginning, literally the day after this happened, that you would not forget about Laken," Phillips told him. "You weren't president at that time, and you have not forgotten."

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"You have fought a fight that most people would not wanna have to fight," she continued. "Most people wouldn't. They would just say, 'It's just easier not to do this.' And President Trump has — you are doing a thankless job that most people just wouldn't do, and I just can't thank you enough."

She acknowledged that the stakes are difficult for people on the outside to fully grasp. Unless you've lived through the nightmare, it's easy to treat border security as an abstraction — a policy debate, a set of statistics. For those who have been affected by crimes committed at the hands of illegal immigrants, particularly those whom Joe Biden welcomed into the country, it’s far too real. 

"There are just not enough words to say, because if you've lived the nightmare that we have lived, you understand the importance of the job that he's doing in securing our nation and fighting for our families, because this could be any family," she said. "This happened to my family. This could be any one of your families."

Then she talked about Laken herself.

"Laken was the most responsible, hardworking, kind, selfless, beautiful Christian," her mother said, "and she wasn't somebody that put herself in bad positions. She didn't make bad choices. She was just a good girl, and she just wanted to go for a run that morning after she'd gotten up at four o'clock the morning before to decorate her roommate's door for her birthday."

A girl who woke up before dawn to do something nice for a friend. That's who was killed.

"She did everything for everyone else. She expected nothing in return," Phillips continued. "She just wanted to be a good friend, and a good sister, and a good daughter, and a hardworking nurse she was working so hard for."

Phillips closed with gratitude that extended beyond her own family. The White House event honored not just Laken but dozens of Angel Families — parents, siblings, spouses left behind by a border crisis that the Biden administration spent four years pretending wasn't happening. 

"I'm beyond blessed and thankful that you're honoring not just Laken, because she's one in a ton of people that have suffered at the hands of illegal immigrants," she said. "She's not the only one, and so thank you for honoring all of them, not just Laken, and we're just beyond grateful."

Allyson Phillips, whose daughter, 22-year old Laken Riley, was killed by an illegal alien while she was out for a run:

"If you've lived that nightmare that we have lived, you understand the importance of the job that [@POTUS is] doing in securing our nation and fighting for our… pic.twitter.com/JarUcVMIrC

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 23, 2026