AUSTIN, Texas — The mother of a 12-year-old Houston girl investigators say was murdered by two undocumented immigrants joined former President Donald Trump at an event in Austin on Friday.
The event comes on the same day that Vice President Kamala Harris is holding a campaign rally in Houston just 12 days away from November 5 Election Day.
Jocelyn Nungaray was found dead in a creek in north Houston on June 17. Police say two men, Johan Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Peña, strangled her before dumping her there. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both men were in the country illegally. ICE also reported they had both been in the custody of border patrol, but later released.
Trump says the case highlights what he calls the Democrats' "weak border security policy."
Jocelyn's mother, Alexis, spoke about grieving for her daughter and border policies. This is the second time she has appeared alongside the former president.
“I know everybody knows somebody that was like her (Jocelyn). She was 12, she was gonna be seventh-grader,” she said. “Pre-teens, they think they're invincible and she was just being a child and due to the Biden-Harris policies we have here are why she's not here anymore. She was taken from her vulnerability and they made her a target and ran with that.”
Nungaray said Harris never reached out to her about her daughter’s death.
“I think it's very sad that she can't even just give me an open apology, sincere apology,” she said. “She's attempted to apologize to me just days before this election and I find it very inconvenient and convenient for her. I appreciate everything Donald Trump, Sena. Ted Cruz has done for me.”
The former president is saying in Texas that Harris is using the state as a “staging ground” to bring armies of people into the U.S. illegally.
Trump says the Biden administration is making Texas “ground zero” for a border “invasion,” though he blamed Harris.
Trump also suggested that mismanagement of the U.S.-Mexico border was a crime against humanity.
There is no evidence to support those claims, however.