President Donald Trump met with the brother of slain police officer Ronil Singh on Thursday, during an event promoting border security in Texas.
Reggie Singh’s 33-year-old brother was allegedly shot and killed by an illegal immigrant a day after Christmas. He joined Trump for a roundtable conversation with other victims of illegal alien criminals and spoke to the press.
“Legally we migrated to America to fulfill his dream, to join the law enforcement,” Singh explained, noting that his brother always wanted to be a police officer.
Reggie Singh’s story was elevated after a photo of him mourning his brother’s death at the funeral was widely shared on the internet.
Singh said that he and his brother came from the Fiji Islands, learned English and went to school to fulfill his dream.
“The way he was killed, what my family is going through right now, I do not want any other family, law enforcement person to go through that,” Singh said.
Singh said that his brother was cremated and that he was the one to pick up the remains.
“It breaks my heart and no one looking at that five-month-old baby, looking for his dad, nobody should ever have to go through that on Christmas Day,” Singh said.
Trump also welcomed Marie Vega a mother of a son who was gunned down by a Mexican national who had been deported six times.
Her son Javier was off-duty but was shot and killed in 2014 in front of her and her husband during a family fishing trip.
“It was supposed to be a peaceful fun fishing afternoon but it didn’t happen that way because we had a criminal illegal alien that killed him.” Vega recalled, “No family should suffer the loss of a child. A parent should not have to bury a child. We need the wall.”
Trump and other law enforcement officials spoke at the roundtable discussion that included a display of seized drugs, guns, and cash from the border.
“They say this is a manufactured crisis. That’s their new sound byte,” Trump said. “Every network has ‘manufactured crisis.’ But it’s not. What’s manufactured is the word ‘manufactured.’”
The president traveled to McAllen, Texas on Thursday together with law enforcement officials and Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn. He criticized Democrats for refusing to make a deal to reopen the federal government and fund his long-promised border wall.
“They say it’s immoral,” Trump continued. “What’s immoral is all the killing that’s taking place…they all know it’s an indefensible position.”