The group which indefatigably pushed the long-ignored problem of illegal-alien crime into the nation’s politics is opening a headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Remembrance Project was founded in 2009 by Maria Espinoza, and the group launched the Stolen Lives Quilt project to spread the word about illegal alien crime. Thanks in part to their efforts, less than a decade later, President Donald Trump has launched a new federal program, the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE), to help the victims and families of crime by illegal aliens.

“We felt it was imperative to have a strong presence in our nation’s Capitol, in order to rectify these terrible injustices,” Espinoza told Breitbart News exclusively. “Our families are being heard from a higher vantage point thanks to Donald Trump, and we plan to continue educating and raising awareness here in Washington.”



The Remembrance Project

On Feb. 20, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly ordered the establishment of VOICE under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while terminating all taxpayer-funded advocacy for illegal aliens and re-allocating all illegal alien-linked resources to support victimized American families.

“Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents. Often, these victims are not provided adequate information about the offender, the offender’s immigration status, or any enforcement action taken by ICE against the offender,” wrote Kelly in a memo obtained by Breitbart Texas.

Trump was the only Republican to champion the families representing the Stolen Lives Quilt in the crowded GOP primary field. Three weeks after Donald Trump announced his run for the presidency, he and five of the families who lost loved ones to illegal alien crime appeared with him at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, in the wake of the murder of San Francisco’s Kate Steinle at the hands of an illegal alien felon who had been deported multiple times.

Credit: The Associated Press

Sabine Durden, a legal immigrant who lost her only son Dominic Durden in a deadly crash involving an illegal alien, was one of the mothers who met with Trump at that press conference.

“He listened to each one of our stories and was visibly shaken and touched,” Durden told Breitbart News at the time. “We got hugged and he promised to continue to fight for us and our kids. We then went to a separate room where the press was staged. He addressed them and then gave each of us time to share our story. The press tried to pin him down on his previous comments. He stood his ground… It was such a pleasure and true honor to meet this man. A legend and someone to bring America back.”

The Remembrance Project has the enthusiastic backing of Trump administration, Espinoza said. His campaign was the only one to respond to an open letter she sent to all of the candidates during the GOP primaries pleading for someone to bring justice to victimized American families, she said.

“Donald Trump is the only candidate whose office has responded to their open letter and that the candidate will support a national program to assist families of victims of illegal aliens.” Espinoza said in a statement. “Their response was immediate and they have stated they will support our efforts in assisting our families.”

The political class largely ignores illegal alien crime and the devastation it inflicts on American families, or insists that Americans have no right to complain because the native-born commit crimes at an allegedly higher rate than first-generation migrants. Not only is this false—see Breitbart News’ debunking of this claim here—it ignores a critical question: Why does the U.S. tolerate any criminality from foreign nationals in the country? Why should one American needlessly die at the hands of a foreign national allowed to remain in the U.S.? Illegal alien crime in 99.9 percent preventable, but for years, the government refused to take steps to enforce its laws and protect vulnerable Americans.

Trump’s focus on curbing illegal immigration and approaching crime from the interests of the victims, rather than the criminals, is a dramatic contrast from business as usual in Washington, D.C.

The Remembrance Project’s move institutionalizes the populist, nationalist, America-First movement in the heart of D.C. and establishes an important legacy of President Trump’s.