Grant Ronnebeck was working the register at a Mesa, Arizona QuickTrip when a Sinaloa Cartel member shot him dead for a pack of cigarettes.
His father Steve has spent eleven years telling that story to anyone in Washington who will listen – at congressional hearings, White House ceremonies, and everywhere in between.
On Wednesday, a Democrat congressman from Tennessee finally answered him.
Steve Cohen's Comments to Angel Families Draw ICE Response
The House Judiciary Committee hearing on DHS oversight brought Angel Families into the room directly – mothers, fathers, and survivors seated just behind Secretary Kristi Noem as she testified, many holding photographs of the people they lost.
Rep. Steve Cohen looked straight at them and said he was sorry – and then explained why their grief didn't change his position.
"For the folks that are here and your families, I'm sorry," Cohen said. "It's terrible what happened to your children and family members, but they are more likely, American citizens are more likely to be attacked by United States citizens who are not undocumented who came here and who were born here. [Americans] are more likely to commit these crimes."
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ICE didn't wait to respond.
"Rep. Cohen pointing to Angel Families in the audience: 'I'm sorry for what happened to your loved ones, BUT…'" the agency posted on X within minutes. "There is no 'but,' Rep. Cohen. Your comments here are reprehensible."
DHS posted separately that Cohen had shouted over Noem as she read aloud the names and crimes of criminal illegal aliens ICE had arrested – calling his behavior "shameful."
Why the Illegal Immigrant Crime Rate Argument Is a Fraud
Cohen's argument – that Americans commit more crimes than illegal aliens – is a magic trick designed to sound like evidence while proving absolutely nothing.
There are approximately 330 million American citizens in this country and somewhere between 11 and 20 million illegal aliens.
Of course the raw number of citizen crimes is higher – there are dramatically more citizens.
That is arithmetic dressed up as compassion.
The only question that matters in that hearing room was the one Cohen refused to answer: were these deaths preventable?
Every single person sitting in that room lost someone to a killer who had no legal right to be in the United States.
Apolinar Altamirano – the Sinaloa Cartel member who shot Grant Ronnebeck – had been living here illegally for more than 20 years.
If immigration law had been enforced at any point during those two decades, Grant Ronnebeck would still be alive.
Cohen answered a question nobody in that room was asking and ignored the one they were.
Democrats Have Dismissed Angel Families Since Biden Took Office
This is not the first time Democrats have looked Angel Families in the face and told them their pain was politically inconvenient.
Biden dismantled the VOICE Office – the DHS program specifically created under Trump's first term to give victims of illegal alien crime access to resources and support – within weeks of taking office.
More than 60 Angel Family members signed an open letter last year stating they had "for too long been ignored, dismissed, or labeled as political props."
Rep. Brad Knott, a Republican from North Carolina, told the families at Wednesday's hearing exactly what they already knew.
"They issue crocodile tears," Knott said of his Democrat colleagues. "They issue fake sympathy, and then they continue to defend the open border policies that enable preventable crimes that brought you here today."
Rep. Eric Swalwell offered condolences to the Angel Families – then immediately pivoted to asking Noem about a man who had crossed illegally in the 1990s and recently been deported.
The message was clear.
Democrats see both groups as political assets.
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They just prefer one of them.
Trump's Record on Angel Families and Criminal Illegal Alien Deportations
Since January 2025, DHS has removed more than 675,000 illegal aliens, with an estimated 2.2 million more self-deporting, according to DHS.
ICE arrested more than 7,000 gang members and 1,416 known or suspected terrorists in Trump's first year back in office.
Trump relaunched the VOICE Office on day one, honored Angel Families at the White House, and named February 22nd National Angel Family Day.
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Steve Ronnebeck stood at a White House ceremony and said what every family in that committee room believes: "All these deaths at the hands of illegal immigrants are preventable. They could've been stopped."
Cohen's response to that is a national crime rate comparison.
The day after this hearing, Kristi Noem was fired.
That is the Democrat Party's immigration policy in one sentence – and every Angel Family in America now has it on video.
Sources:
- John Binder, "Watch–Democrat Tells Angel Families: Sorry for Your Loss, But Americans Are More Violent than Illegal Aliens," Breitbart, March 4, 2026.
- Virginia Allen, "Democrats Take Heat Over 'Fake Sympathy' for Angel Families in Noem Hearing," The Daily Signal, March 4, 2026.
- "Father of Girl Injured by Illegal Migrant Truck Driver Slams 'Insensitive' Rhetoric During Noem Hearing," Fox News, March 5, 2026.
- "DHS Sets the Stage for Another Historic, Record-Breaking Year Under President Trump," Department of Homeland Security, January 20, 2026.
- "DHS Recaps the Worst of the Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens ICE Took Enforcement Action On During President Trump's First Year in Office," Department of Homeland Security, January 20, 2026.
- "ICYMI: Angel Families Urge Republicans to Pass 'Big Beautiful Bill' and Secure Border," White House, May 2025.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov), post on X, March 4, 2026.