AST Digital Magazine July 2017 Digital-July | Page 5

Volume 14
Mr. Shaw wanted the news media to know that
Mr. Trump could have gone further when he
called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals.
“I would have said they were murderers,” he said.
Hailed for bravery, accused of racism, scorned
as puppets, these are some of Mr. Trump’s most
potent surrogates, the people whose private
anguish has formed the emotional cornerstone
of his crusade against illegal immigration and
clouded the futures of America’s 11 million unau-
thorized immigrants.
Their alliance came down to this: To parents
parched for understanding, Mr. Trump was a gulp
of hope.
The Trump campaign flew them to speak at ral-
lies and at the Republican National Convention,
put them up in Trump hotels and kept in touch
with regular phone calls and messages.
July 2017 Edition
to vote on a bill that would intensify penalties for
immigrants who re-enter the United States after
being deported. The bill is named for a woman
fatally shot by a man who illegally crossed the
border at least five times.
Sabine Durden, the mother of another victim, re-
calls dropping to her knees and sobbing when
she first heard Mr. Trump warn of the dangers
of illegal immigration. Then his campaign called.
“It was almost an out-of-body experience after
being so deeply hurt and nobody listening and
nobody wanting to talk to you about this,” she
said.
“It’s almost like I put on a little Superwoman cape
because I knew I was fighting a worthwhile fight.”
In Washington in April, they sat in the front rows
as Mr. Trump’s homeland security secretary un-
veiled an office for victims of crimes committed
by unauthorized immigrants: of the many prom-
ises the new president had made in their names,
one of the first kept.
(Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announces the
opening of the Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement of-
fice. Courtesy of PBS NewsHour and YouTube. Posted on
Apr 26, 2017)
After his victory, Mr. Trump invited at least one
to the Inaugural Ball and seated three more with
the first lady during his first address to Congress.
Then and since, they have defended him on so-
cial media and in the press, assuring the world
that, with President Trump in office, their children
will not have died in vain.
This week, the House of Representatives plans
To Mr. Trump’s critics, the office and the people it
was supposed to represent were little more than
pawns in his crude attempts to make monsters
out of a largely law-abiding population — one
that research has shown to commit crimes at a
lower rate than native-born Americans.
But here before the cameras, the secretary, John
F. Kelly, was putting his hand over his heart and
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