Katie Abraham and Chloe Polzin had been trying to find a late-night snack with three different associates on a frigid evening in Urbana, Illinois.
The finish of winter break was nearing for the 2 college college students, who had traveled to Urbana to go to different water polo gamers on the University of Illinois, Abraham’s father informed NCS.
It was practically 2 a.m. on January 19 when 20-year-old Abraham and 21-year-old Polzin, together with their associates, stopped at a crimson mild. Suddenly, an SUV got here up rapidly behind them, smashing into the automotive and injuring all 5 folks inside, in line with Urbana Police.
The two ladies had been killed in a drunken-driving hit-and-run collision, the Department of Homeland Security mentioned, by a person in the United States illegally who fled the scene of the crime.
Abraham was pronounced useless on the hospital quickly after the accident, police mentioned. Polzin died the following day, in line with her obituary.
Almost eight months after Abraham’s death, the Department of Homeland Security introduced it was launching its newest immigration enforcement motion in Illinois, “Operation Midway Blitz,” in her honor, drawing the 20-year-old’s title into nationwide politics for example of a damaged immigration system amid a bigger crackdown in cities throughout the US.
Her father, Joe Abraham, informed NCS the federal authorities failed “miserably” in defending his daughter and that state politicians ignored her death, and by extension, “let it happen.”
Temperatures had dropped as little as 2 levels the evening Abraham died, and by no means broke above freezing that day.
Abraham and Polzin had been childhood associates from their time on the East Side Water Polo Club in the Chicago suburbs.
The two ladies, together with three different associates, had been sitting at a crimson mild simply 1.5 miles north of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when a crimson Mitsubishi Outlander crashed into the again of their automotive, police mentioned.
All 5 had been taken to the hospital, in line with police. While two had been launched with minor accidents and one other made a restoration, Abraham was declared useless on the hospital. Polzin was declared mind useless the following day, in line with her obituary.
The Polzin household didn’t reply to NCS’s makes an attempt to talk with them for this story.
Police mentioned the driving force fled the scene on foot. Three days later, the US Marshals Service discovered him in Texas, driving a bus headed to Mexico.
Joe Abraham’s youngest daughter liked water.
“I think she liked the water better than land,” her father mentioned.
She performed water polo for a journey workforce all through highschool and for a membership workforce in school. She swam and did diving from a younger age, he mentioned.
Abraham, who was from Glenview, Illinois, was going into her third yr at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in line with her father. She wasn’t sure but, however he thinks she was leaning towards majoring in advertising. They supposed to speak about it the following time she was dwelling.
“She kind of had a plan of where she was going to go, and obviously that didn’t happen,” he mentioned.
Joe Abraham mentioned his daughter “loved life, and she knew how to enjoy it, and get the best out of it.”
He referred to as her “such a special person,” who was real and genuine. She made everybody really feel seen and had a terrific wit and a terrific sense of humor, he added.
She liked every kind of music, and Joe Abraham recalled sitting collectively and listening to music from his technology.
She had an “eclectic group of friends,” and two siblings with whom she was shut.
“She was just such a good sister to her older sister and older brother,” her father mentioned. “It’s a sad, sad situation.”
US Marshals tracked down the SUV driver three days after he fled the scene of the crime on an “El Expreso” bus – “the express” – heading to Matamoros, Mexico.
The man informed police he was a 27-year-old Mexican named Juan Jahaziel Saenz-Suarez the morning he was captured. But a day later, he divulged to police that his identification was a lie – he was 29, from Guatemala. His title was really Julio Cucul-Bol.
He was not legally in the United States and had used solid paperwork to cover his identification, police mentioned.
Police filed new expenses in opposition to Cucul-Bol for leaving the scene of a private damage crash ensuing in death, aggravated driving underneath the affect ensuing in death and reckless murder.
Federal prosecutors charged Cucul-Bol in May with possessing a false everlasting resident card, possessing a false Social Security card, false use of a passport, and making a false assertion on a financial institution software, in line with the Department of Justice.
In February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an arrest detainer requesting native authorities notify ICE earlier than Cucol-Bol is launched, the company informed NCS. According to ICE data, he is being held in custody in Champaign, Illinois.
NCS has reached out to the Department of Justice for an replace on Cucul-Bol’s standing. Court paperwork on-line don’t checklist the title of a protection lawyer for Cucul-Bol.
Joe Abraham mentioned the federal authorities first reached out to him in June, when House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer invited him to attend a committee meeting the place Democratic governors – together with J.B. Pritzker of Illinois – testified about their states’ so-called “sanctuary state” insurance policies.
He mentioned he had hoped to talk with Pritzker after the Illinois governor heard his daughter’s story, however informed NCS, “No one could muster up even a look in my direction.”
A number of weeks later, he mentioned, he and his spouse had been contacted by the Trump administration and invited to the White House for an occasion for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
“Joe, we will end this invasion once and for all, and we’re always going to remember the memory of Katie, the beautiful, beautiful 20-year-old daughter of yours,” Trump informed him earlier than shaking his hand and holding up a photograph of the daddy and daughter.
“I don’t want to get political. I hate this crap. I’m just in this position now,” Joe Abraham informed NCS.
He criticized the present Illinois authorities and the earlier presidential administration for mishandling immigration and referred to as for a vetting course of earlier than individuals are allowed in the nation.
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying everyone’s a criminal. What I’m saying is this guy in particular could have easily been filtered out of the system. He was using an alias … and really was not being any type of a productive person here in Illinois,” Joe Abraham informed NCS. “And for him to take her life is a very sad state.”
Abraham’s mother and father had been featured in a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this week, the place the company introduced it was launching an immigration operation in Illinois.
A query seems in overlaid textual content on the video: “When you hear people say illegal aliens aren’t given due process, what’s your reaction?”
“Katie received no due process,” Joe Abraham says in the video.
“When you talk about due process, I wish she was in another country or in some detention center I can go see her, but she’s not, and I’ll never see her again.”
The Department of Homeland Security referred to as Joe Abraham at some point earlier than the company introduced Operation Midway Blitz can be completed in honor of their daughter.
“Some might say they’re leveraging me, but maybe we’re leveraging them a little bit so other kids don’t get killed, and other parents don’t have to go see what we’re going through,” he mentioned. “So, maybe it’s a two-way street there. I was just happy someone acknowledged Katie.”
DHS on Monday announced “Operation Midway Blitz,” geared toward focusing on “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.”
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained at the very least 5 folks over the weekend, together with a flower vendor and an individual ready for the bus, Chicago Alderperson Jeylú Gutiérrez mentioned Monday.
Ongoing arrests in Chicago are anticipated to increase as a federal presence builds up in a weeks-long, phased strategy, in line with officers accustomed to the plans who pressured it’s nonetheless in flux.
The operations in Boston and Chicago are modeled after the June immigration sweeps in Los Angeles. The Supreme Court dominated Monday that immigration enforcement officers can proceed what critics describe as “roving patrols” in Southern California that decrease courts mentioned doubtless violated the Fourth Amendment.
Pritzker denounced the DHS operations in the state Monday, saying in a post on X that the operation “isn’t about fighting crime.”
“That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” he mentioned, including that the administration has chosen to focus “on scaring Illinoisians.”
NCS’s Priscilla Alvarez and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.