President Donald Trump is holding an “angel families” remembrance ceremony at the White House on Monday.
Watch live in our video player above.
“Angel families” is a term the Trump administration is using to refer to relatives of people killed by someone who was illegally in the U.S.
WATCH LIVE: President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post on Sunday night that Trump was signing a proclamation designating “Angel Family Day.”
The event is meant to recognize Laken Riley and families like hers. The 22-year-old Georgia nursing student was killed in February 2024 while out jogging. Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan man, is now serving a life term for her murder. Ibarra had been arrested for illegally entering the U.S. and released to pursue his case in immigration court.
Riley’s case became a flashpoint in the debate over immigration, and the first bill Trump signed into law in his second term was named for Riley. Trump says today is a “truly solemn occasion.”
Laken Riley’s mother thanks Trump
Allyson Phillips, the mother of Riley, thanked Trump for the work he’s done to honor her daughter and others who have been killed by people in the U.S. illegally. She said public perception of the president is different than the man she has come to know.
READ MORE: Checks and balances aren’t working under Trump, growing majority says
“You have fought a fight that most people wouldn’t want to have to fight,” she said. “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 he is doing.”
Phillips remembered her daughter as “the most responsible, hardworking, kind, selfless, beautiful Christian.” She added: “She didn’t make bad choices. She was just a good girl. She just wanted to go for a run that morning.”
Trump claims people killed by individuals in the U.S. illegally would still be alive if he’d won the 2020 election
There is no way Trump or anyone can know that. But the Republican president has received high marks in his second term for practically cutting off the flow of illegal immigration into the U.S. from Mexico, and says he would have done the same thing back then had he not lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump is using the event to repeat false claims that he only lost because the election was rigged. But there is no evidence to support his allegations.
Trump lost dozens of court challenges, his own attorney general found no evidence of widespread fraud, and reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states where he contested his loss all affirmed Biden’s victory.
