Grieving dad says daughter’s death exposed cost of lax border enforcement

A year after his daughter died in a hit-and-run crash in Urbana, Illinois, Joe Abraham confronted the human cost of the state’s failed border and immigration policies and demanded that Illinois lawmakers acknowledge her death for the first time.

While Operation Midway Blitz, an immigration enforcement operation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targeting criminal illegal immigrants, was launched in honor of Katie Abraham’s death, Abraham also warned illegal immigrants to “do things the right way.”

“If you really want to be a part of America and come here, then you have to do things the right way,” said Abraham, who appeared in a video for The American Border Story, a national initiative that reveals the human impact of America’s border crisis.

“There needs to be an orderly process where people have to figure out how to behave here,” he told Fox News Digital, then described the silence from state leaders that further compounded the pain of his loss.

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“I was met with complete silence and indifference from my governor,” Abraham said. “Katie was subjected to disrespect and silence.” Abraham said neither Pritzker, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Tammy Duckworth nor state or local representatives have reached out to him since he was killed.

When referring to Katie’s case, Abraham even recalled attending a congressional Oversight Committee event in 2025 where Pritzker and other sanctuary state governors testified.

“We were sitting a few meters away from him at the convention and he didn’t even waste two seconds, didn’t even look in our direction,” he said. “Dad to dad – I expected him to care.”

“I wanted him to say, ‘Things are out of control. We’re working on it.'” I wanted leadership and I wanted Katie to accept her life. “It was worth five seconds of his time,” he added.

Katie died in the early morning hours of January 19, 2025, after police say a drunk illegal alien crashed the vehicle he was in with friends and fled the scene.

The second young woman, Chloe Polzin, 21, of Deerfield, died from her injuries the next day.

“They were at a stoplight in front of the hospital and were rear-ended at almost 80 miles per hour by an illegal immigrant who was driving under the influence,” Abraham said.

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Joe Abraham criticized Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s handling of illegal immigration. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“[Katie] “She died at the scene… They had to smash her Honda Civic like a can of tuna to get her body out of there,” Abraham said, before describing his daughter as lively, determined and full of hope.

“Katie was a productive, talented, beautiful woman, very smart, very funny, very witty. She had a knack for drawing people in and making them feel seen.”

He said he loved sports and water and had his whole life ahead of him but now he would never see her get married and said he would “never walk her down the aisle or see his kids.”

The driver, Julio Cucul-Bol, was a Guatemalan citizen who used a Mexican alias, Abraham said.

Officials said Cucul-Bol had previously been deported from the United States. Cucul-Bol was arrested near Dallas while on a bus heading to Matamoros, Mexico. Police said he was found with a fake Mexican ID under the name Juan JaHaziel Saenz-Suarez.

Cucul-Bol was sentenced to 30 years in prison after accepting a plea deal on charges including leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, aggravated drunken driving resulting in death and reckless homicide.

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Operation Midway Raid was launched in Katie Abraham’s honor. (Washington Post via Demetrius Freeman/Getty Images)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had accused him of having a fake Social Security card, having a fake permanent resident card, making false statements on a bank application, and misusing a passport.

“The problem is, when he came to the United States, there was no background check. There was no health check,” Abraham said. “He had HIV. That’s in the court papers and court documents.”

According to Abraham, Cucul-Bol was illiterate and spoke neither English nor Spanish; instead he spoke Mayan. “He wasn’t working and wasn’t productive. This also wasn’t his first time driving under the influence,” he said.

Abraham said his criticism was of poor policy and that he hoped it would be “rational policy and some common sense”. “If you’re going to override federal law, you better have a process to fill that gap.”

Abraham called for practical policies that protect victims and the wider public, while also supporting immigrants who arrive legally and in good faith. He added that the real progress that has been made so far is that federal agencies like DHS and ICE have stepped in to help communities despite facing resistance from many parties.

“ICE needs to take to the streets now because Illinois is not cooperating,” he said. “You can’t throw the welcome mat at anyone and everyone without being checked and scrutinized and then wash your hands of the consequences.”

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Abraham claims that neither her governor, senators (including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pictured), nor state and local representatives contacted her following her daughter’s death. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Illinois and the city of Chicago have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over Operation Midway Blitz, alleging that President Donald Trump’s administration violated Tenth Amendment protections through what the lawsuit describes as “illegal and violent” enforcement tactics.

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“We can compare Pritzker to Donald Trump, who invited us to the White House, looked fatherly into my eyes. He acknowledged Katie’s life and said things were out of control and he would work to fix it,” he added. “This past year has been the cruelest year of my life without my daughter.”