As Madeline has been covering, yet another harrowing crime where illegal immigrants have been charged and arrested involves the rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston. When it comes to the disturbing details, Nungaray was lured from her home, raped for two hours, and then strangled. Her body was found in a creek. The suspects were both of here illegally from Venezuela, with 22-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Pena Ramos having their bail set at $10 million. One of them was actually wearing an ICE ankle monitor at the time. On Tuesday night's episode of Fox News' "Hannity," host Sean Hannity went over many of these details, as he also had Jocelyn's mother, Alexis Nungaray, as well as her grandfather, Kelvin Alvarenga, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is from Houston, present to discuss the horrific ordeal.
Early on in the program, Hannity reminded that the suspects "are just the latest unvetted Joe Biden illegal immigrants accused of heinous crimes."
Jocelyn's mother shared that "it's definitely been something that's been hard to grasp for reality," also adding "but now, I have to be her voice and I need to make sure that everybody hears the horrible thing that happened to my daughter and give her justice and make a change because this -- we don't need to be burying our kids."
Jocelyn's grandfather also spoke about how his granddaughter was "a fighter." As Hannity mentioned early in the program, "additional documents now say she fought back and fought back hard against her attackers, leaving bite and scratch marks on them."
"She would always conduct herself to try -- you know, being the leader. Very loved -- everywhere she went, she -- she got loved from adults, you know, kids her age, and she was -- she was amazing, you know?" He also reminded that Jocelyn "was starting to become a teenager and that's something that was taken from us."
"She's -- this should -- this shouldn't have happened. This shouldn't have happened to her or any child. There's no words that I can tell you how I and my family or it's feeling. I mean, it's -- it's very devastating," Kelvin went on to say.
As he brought Cruz into the conversation, Hannity reminded his guests of other details, such as how former and potentially future President Donald Trump received considerable backlash from the media in 2015 when pointing out that unvetted people coming across the border would turn out to be rapists and murderers.
"Under Joe Biden, 11 million unvetted illegal immigrants coming from countries with terror ties, countries where -- our top geopolitical foes, totally, completely unvetted," Hannity pointed out, as he went on to list other examples of women and girls victimized by illegal immigrants here thanks to President Joe Biden's open border policies.
"And I -- I look at the life of this beautiful young girl, I think of this girl in Queens, New York, brutally raped in a park in broad daylight, I think of Laken Riley, I think of Rachel Morin, the mother of these young children -- and it's like how many more parents and families have to go through this, senator, before this guy shuts down the border,'" Hannity asked the senator, also reminding that the bad border bill Democrats have been pushing for wouldn't actually close the border.
Cruz didn't merely speak about about the "horrific" nature of the crime, he also spoke to Alexis and Kelvin having "such incredible courage standing up for and speaking out for Jocelyn," though he emphasized they shouldn't have to have to do that.
"Let me be very clear, these bastards should be executed and they should burn in the pits of hell," Cruz declared. "But we shouldn't have to be talking about this because Jocelyn should still with us, and every day, this administration is releasing more and more and more illegal aliens who are going on to kill people day after day after day, and it's every day you pick up the newspaper, every day you look at the headlines and it happens over and over again.
Reminding how one of the suspects was wearing an ICE ankle bracelet, Cruz insisted "we need to demand, stop -- stop allowing this invasion, stop releasing violent criminals, protect our kids."
Hannity agreed that such tragedies were "wrong" and "preventable," while meanwhile Biden and his administration gaslight on the status of the order. "And for three-plus years and even last week, the president said the border is secure, the border is closed, it never has been because he bragged about undoing all the policies that did work that were securing the border," he added.
Biden hasn't just "undon[e] all the policies that did work" under Trump, he signed an executive order on his first very day in office. Meanwhile the White House, especially Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, has sought to blame Trump.
As Alexis spoke about her daughter, someone who "was a preteen that was slowly becoming this beautiful, beautiful young lady," who "was going so far, she had admiration of dreams and aspiring goals that she wanted to do in life. She was going to make it," she also emphasized with tears that "she was going -- she was going to do things."
Jocelyn's mother also emphasized the need to do something on illegal immigration. "And these men, these illegal men took that opportunity from my daughter -- from our family of watching her become this amazing person," Alexis insisted. "So, now, with her voice being ripped away from her, I am going to be her voice and stand strong and try to make a difference in this world, because this has got to stop. We have to stop burying our kids. This is not right. We have to have more reinforcement when it comes to letting people in. This is not okay. It's not okay."
As he was similarly asked by Hannity what he wants the American people to know, Jocelyn's grandfather emphasized the need for change. "Well, most importantly, I would like the people that can make changes to our laws to just sit back, reflect, and I don't know if we can transmit the pain that we're having through cameras, but just sit back and reflect and think of all these little angels that shouldn't have been taken away," Kelvin said.
He also made clear that a particular problem has been with vetting people as he made an impassioned plea for safety. "And they have for the reason that -- for the reason that we're not doing what we need to do, you know, screening these people. Like I’ve said before, you're not going to tell me that with an ankle monitor and you're good to go. These people, you don't wake up one day and decide that you're going to commit this horrific crime. This is people that come -- used to doing these type of things. It's just sad that -- I mean, it happens all over the country. We need a safer country."
In many of these examples of horrific violent crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, the suspects were wanted for other crimes in their home countries as well.
As the segment came to a close, Cruz not only expressed a sense of urgency for "people [to] stand up and say enough is enough," he also raised an "infuriating" point about about the continued release of illegal immigrants. "Tomorrow, we're going to see more people being killed. It's day after day after day," he reminded.
"Is there one Democrat senator who will say, okay, we've reached the limit, we're going to stop, we're not going to release people anymore, we're not going to put ankle monitors on them, and let them go and release them into our community, we're going to stop," Cruz wondered, expressing "that's what it's going to take and we need to come together and just say enough is enough. We need -- we need to protect our citizens."
America is grieving with the family of Jocelyn Nungaray.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 26, 2024
Jocelyn should be here with us today. We are all lifting up her family in our prayers.https://t.co/jI53LzgNaF pic.twitter.com/Fwm5RZLcv4
Beyond his appearance on "Hannity," Cruz has also spoken about Nungaray's death in an episode of his podcast. His campaign has also called out Cruz's Democratic opponent for November's election, Rep. Colin Allred, over his lack of speaking to this tragic death.
"[Nungaray's] death is a direct result of Colin Allred and Joe Biden's open border policies," read a press release. "Jocelyn Nungaray’s brutal murder is a stark reminder of the consequences of Colin Allred and Joe Biden’s reckless border policies. There is no excuse for Allred’s lack of silence. He voted consistently for Joe Biden’s open border agenda and the consequences are being felt across the country and state." a Cruz campaign spokesperson also said in a statement.