PHOENIX: Two years ago, Steve Ronnebeck’s son was gunned down at work in a Phoenix-area convenience store over a pack of cigarettes. The man accused of pulling the trigger was an immigrant who was in the country illegally and had been released by federal authorities.
The suspected killer, captured on camera calmly stepping over the body of 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck to grab a few more packs, faced deportation but was free on bond.
Ronnebeck and other families who have lost loved ones to crimes committed by immigrants now have a forceful advocate at the highest level with President Donald Trump in the White House. During his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Trump announced that he would create a new office to serve victims of immigrant crime and their relatives.
Although immigrants are responsible for only a small fraction of the crimes committed daily, the issue played an outsize role in the race for the White House. Trump repeatedly invoked such crimes at rallies and frequently appeared with victims on the campaign trail, pointing to case after case in which people were killed by immigrant assailants who slipped through the cracks.
Many families have pressed for changes for years, lobbying lawmakers and even disrupting congressional hearings.
“To lose a child, especially when it was preventable, you know there’s no coming back from that. You don’t ever recover, but to have a president that is putting Americans first and putting the victims’ families first, it’s amazing,” Ronnebeck said. “Finally we’re being heard. My family feels like we actually matter again.”
The man charged in Grant Ronnebeck’s slaying has pleaded not guilty to murder, armed robbery and other charges. Adolfo Altamirano is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 18 in Maricopa County.
Trump’s new agency will be the office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, or VOICE, and will be part of the Department of Homeland Security. Department Secretary John Kelly described the agency’s planned work in a memo last month.
Under President Barack Obama, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency protected information about immigration cases from public inspection, including from victims. It also created a public advocate position in 2012 that helped immigrants facing deportation and answered complaints or offered explanations about the agency’s work.
Opponents criticized the administration for using government money to advocate for immigrants in the country illegally.
Mary Ann Mendoza is the mother of a Mesa, Ariz., police sergeant killed in 2014 in a collision with a drunken driver suspected of being here illegally. Raul Silva Corona, who had been driving the wrong way, was killed.
Mendoza said she has been working with members of the Trump administration as they create VOICE and is grateful for the president’s actions.
“So many times families are left grieving the loss of their loved ones, and they’re left wondering what happened in the system,” she said. “I wish we had leadership in our state that stood up for Americans and would reach out to our families.”
Several studies have concluded immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born U.S. citizens. A 2014 study published in the journal Justice Quarterly concluded that immigrants “exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course.”