President Donald Trump touted his record-low number of illegal border crossings since reentering office, arguing that the U.S. needed a “new president,” not “new legislation,” to secure the country during his Tuesday joint address to Congress — while Democrat members refused to stand to honor Laken Riley’s grieving family.
“If we truly care about protecting American children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world,” Trump said during his first time addressing Congress since his January inauguration.
“Because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies, they’re now strongly embedded in our country, but we are getting them out, and getting them out fast,” he continued, before thanking border czar Tom Homan, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kristi Noem, the U.S. Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He then brought up Laken Riley, the 22-year-old Augusta University student who was brutally assaulted and murdered by an illegal immigrant who was released into the country under the Biden administration before killing the young woman while she jogged in February 2024:
Last year, a brilliant 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley, the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a job on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered. Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden’s open southern border, and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration … it was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat-run sanctuary city, a disaster, before ending the life of this beautiful young angel.
The president then introduced Allyson and Lauren Phillips, Laken’s mother and sister. While Republicans stood up and clapped for them, Democrats remained seated:
“Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety,” the president said, referring to the Laken Riley Act.
“It’s called the Laken Riley Act, so Allyson and Lauren, America will never, ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley,” Trump added, receiving applause from Laken’s family.
The crowd erupted when Trump remarked how his administration “has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history, and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crosses ever recorded.”
While Republicans gave a loud applause, Democrats began to jeer and boo — prompting a “Trump” chant from the GOP side of the crowd.
Trump also referenced how the Democrats made excuses for not securing the border during the Biden administration.
“The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying, ‘We needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border,’” he said. “But it turns out all we needed was a new president.”
White House White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller responded to the Democrats’ refusal to stand for Laken’s family on X:
Jesus Christ is King
