President Donald Trump honored the brother of fallen California officer Ronil Singh during a border patrol round-table Thursday in McAllen, Texas.
“Legally we migrated from FIJI to fulfill his dream to become a law enforcement officer,” brother Reggie Singh said Thursday. Singh spoke in support of restricting illegal immigrant entry to the U.S. saying, “I do not want any other family […] to go through that. Whatever it takes to minimize, put a stop to it, my family fully supports it.”
Singh was killed by an illegal immigrant the day after Christmas, and is a legal immigrant with a wife and child. Singh was allegedly killed by Gustavo Perez Arriaga after the suspected assailant was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving. Arriaga had two previous arrests for drunk driving, with critics noting that if California was authorized to work with federal immigration authorities he would have been deported.
Reggie Singh brother of Officer Singh, killed by illegal immigrant, receives standing ovation and hug from @POTUS after saying – “No family should ever go through what we are going through. Whatever it takes to put a stop to it, our family supports it.” pic.twitter.com/lJWcrSyiY3
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 10, 2019
Singh recounted “looking at that 5-month old baby” of his brother after his sibling was killed and how the child was looking for his now-deceased father.
“No one should ever go through that,” he declared.
“The day I found out that the suspect was an illegal immigrant and had prior DUIs … why we did not [sic] react the first time he had a DUI if he is an illegal immigrant?” Singh told Fox News in a recent interview, adding, “illegal immigrants, we shouldn’t be giving a second chance to them.”
Trump’s trip to McAllen, Texas comes amid an ongoing fight over how to end an ongoing government shutdown. The president declared a humanitarian crisis at the southern border in a Wednesday Oval Office address and is urging Democratic leaders to appropriate 5.7 billion dollars for a steel barrier. (RELATED: Trump Refuses To Budge In Shutdown Demand: ‘As Long As It Takes’)
Democratic leaders have declared that they will negotiate with Trump only after the government is fully reopened.