Janesville, WI– American mothers, whose children were murdered by illegal aliens, spoke at two Saturday campaign rallies for Wisconsin businessman, Paul Nehlen.
Nehlen is running to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s August 9th open primary election.
The mothers told the crowd that Speaker Ryan has refused to meet with them, or even acknowledge their loss.
Laura Wilkerson, whose 18-year-old son was tied up, beaten, strangled, set on fire, and tortured to death by his illegal alien classmate, said that this administration is silencing families like hers and that Ryan “is part of the problem”:
They just don’t want you to know [about our families]. As average citizens, we’re not lining their pockets, and so they don’t really care what happens to you or I. They care more about illegal aliens than they do American citizens, more about cheap labor than Americans, more about a vote than American families… Nobody in this administration wants our voices to be heard. They want to silence us and they’re all about illegals in this country. Paul Ryan is part of the problem. We went to his house a few weeks ago and tried to talk to him—myself and three other mothers. And he gets out in his secure vehicle and flees the scene. He doesn’t have five minutes to come out and say, ‘Hello. What do you want to say to me? What’s your name?’ Absolutely nothing. He fled… [Ryan] has either lost his sense of common courtesy or he does not care [about our families] one bit.
“He doesn’t [flee] if you’ve got money,” one man in the crowd called out.
“He’s a coward,” shouted another.
“For shame!” another man in the crowd yelled.
Wilkerson told the rally attendees, “I want to you to hear this story so that you know this can happen to your family at any time.”
I was an average American family, blue collar, hard-working, stay-at-home mom, who taught values to my kids just like you did… This could happen to your family any day. I want you to see the consequence that landed on our family due to this administration’s failure to uphold the current immigration laws.
Wilkerson told the crowd that during the trial, her son’s killer recounted “with excitement, exactly how he systematically tortured and murdered my son.”
Josh was at school and a classmate asked him for a ride home. Joshua said sure. He was a compassionate kid. We taught him values, hard work, perseverance, honesty, kindness. He died doing exactly what we taught him to do— to show compassion and be kind to people. That classmate of Joshua’s is now a killer. He was brought here illegally when he was 10 by his illegal parents from Belize. His parents still reside in our community and his sister… This killer was a black belt in mixed martial arts. Josh weighed 100 pounds in the body bag. [Josh] had never been in a fight in his life—just a sweet, quiet kid. [His murderer] said his ‘killing skills took over’—‘his killing skills took over’… He said he first hit Josh in the nose, breaking all of the bones in his nose and his nasal cavity. Next he kicked Josh in the stomach so hard that Joshua’s spleen was sliced in two. So Josh went to the ground. He took a closet rod and beat Josh in the head until that rod broke in four pieces. Josh was still trying to gasp for air, still trying to breathe. So the killer strangled him, let him go, strangled him again, let him go again until it was finally over and Josh got his last breath of air. The killer cleaned up the scene. He tied up Joshua’s body with about 16 rope loops around his neck, to the back of his hands, through his back belt loop, and through his feet so that he could put Josh here and carry him… He put him in the back seat of my truck. He got Joshua’s wallet, took two dollars out, went and bought gasoline, went to a field, put Josh there. And the picture I remember from the court is Josh was in a fetal position, he looked like a [Wilkerson pauses]—he just looked so much like a child. He poured gas on him and set him on fire.”
Ryan has ignored Wilkerson’s family and the tragedy they suffered at the hands of an illegal alien, who would have qualified as a so-called “DREAMer.” Ryan has previously explained that he believes it is the job of a U.S. lawmaker to put oneself in the shoes of illegal immigrant “DREAMers.”
Local and national media have defended Ryan’s treatment of these “angel moms.”
For instance, the Janesville Gazette described the mothers’ decision to stand with Paul Nehlen and hold a press conference in front of Ryan’s personal border wall as “despicable.”
The Gazette editors wrote, “Ryan supposedly hopped in his vehicle and refused to meet with the mothers, and we can hardly blame him.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Christian Schneider echoed the Gazette’s criticism of Nehlen and the mothers’ “stunt.”
Most remarkably, Politico’s Rachael Bade went so far as to seemingly suggest that the mothers’ children may not even have been killed by illegal aliens at all.
Bade wrote that the “mothers of four children allegedly murdered by undocumented workers [went] to Janesville… to Ryan’s home to present him pictures of their deceased.”
It was unclear why Bade sought to suggest that the murderers’ immigration statuses were somehow in dispute.
As Breitbart reported, Bade’s description of Wilkerson’s “alleged” murderer as an “undocumented worker” is factually inaccurate. Wilkerson’s murderer was an illegal alien brought to the U.S. as a minor and was a high school student at the time he killed Wilkerson—i.e. the he was not an “undocumented worker.” Additionally, since Wilkerson’s murderer has been convicted of killing Wilkerson, he is not an “alleged” murderer— he is a murderer.
Bade’s editors were eventually forced to issue an update to Bade’s story after Breitbart had reported on some of its factual inaccuracies. Politico’s editors wrote: “This story has been updated to more precisely describe the deaths of four people whose mothers appeared in Ryan’s district to protest his immigration views.”
Similarly, when the President of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wrote a stinging letter to Speaker Ryan addressing concerns about Ryan’s record on immigration, local papers refused to cover it.
In his letter, the ICE Union president blasted Ryan for failing to be “vocal in championing an immigration policy that defends the rule of law, and represents the interest of American citizens.” The letter noted that Ryan has not reached out to ICE in any way and instead “pushed an omnibus spending bill that funds the current [immigration] lawlessness.” The letter said that ICE officers were “disturbed” by some of Ryan’s statements on immigration—noting that Ryan’s pro-amnesty rhetoric “could be adding to [the]… perception” that anyone who can get across the border will be allowed to stay.
The National ICE Council had tried to give the letter as an exclusive to Mark Schaaf at the Journal Times, and then to Frank Schultz at the Janesville Gazette. Schaaf told the ICE Council, “I checked with my editors and we will not be able to do the story.” Schultz similarly would not publish the story.
It was unclear why— at a time when Speaker Ryan is facing a primary opponent who’s attacking Ryan’s support for open borders, and at a time when Ryan has been flooding the district with ads attempting to defend and distance himself from his immigration record—that both publications felt it not important for their readers to hear the views of immigration law enforcement officers themselves.
Wilkerson explained that the media is enabling the push for open borders. “This preventable tragedy is not unique to my family,
Wilkerson said. “Day after day, family after family, it’s happening on a regular basis. You will not hear about it on media. They do not want you to know this is happening. They want one world, open borders, welcome everybody.”
At this point, members of the audience turned around to face the media and began booing loudly.
“Make sure you put this on TV,” shouted one man.
“Put it on TV. It’s time” said another.
“One of these days, you’re going to have to answer for this!” someone else yelled.
“Wait until it’s your kids!” one woman cried.
“Exactly!” another man said, in agreement with the woman.
Wilkerson concluded by telling the crowd why she supports Paul Nehlen.
“Remember when you vote for Paul Nehlen that he will be part of the solution,” Wilkerson said as the crowd began to applaud loudly. “He will listen to you. He will solve issues for my American family, just like he will for yours. It’s time to tell Paul Ryan: No more.
The crowd erupted in chants of, “No More. No More. No More” as Wilkerson left the podium.