Angel Mom Mary Ann Mendoza told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that it is Angel Families “who should be mattering” to elected officials, not illegal aliens.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Mendoza — who heads the Angel Families organization — told Feinstein that while illegal aliens have been allowed to sue the federal government for being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, Angel Families are left without recourse when their loved ones are killed by illegal aliens:

Unfortunately, Angel Families, we witness illegal aliens suing our federal government for being separated at the border for 20 or 30 days from their child and Angel Families have no recourse to sue anybody for the death of their loved ones, and yet all of these policies are made without our approval. [Emphasis added] There is no voter approval on any policies that are put into place. And so we’ve got to have some sort of avenue as Angel Families, and if it’s going to be hitting somebody where it hurts to make them realize, you are protecting the wrong people in your country. We are the people who should be mattering. [Emphasis added]

Mendoza’s son, 32-year-old police officer Brandon Mendoza, was killed in May 2014 by a drunk illegal alien who was driving the wrong way down a highway in Mesa, Arizona.

Mendoza said the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers oppose sanctuary policies despite often having to enforce them. Take, for example, the recent case where Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. temporarily suspended an officer who helped federal immigration officials capture an illegal alien fugitive.

“I know from my son’s position being a police officer that … a lot of police departments are directed by the mayor and the city council as to what their policies will be regarding sanctuary policies,” Mendoza said. “And this is where I have an issue with because these city officials are taking it upon themselves to make this decision, instruct our law enforcement officers, their hands are tied behind their backs.”

“I would say more than 85 percent of the time, law enforcement does not agree with sanctuary policies,” Mendoza continued. “They know that it makes their life more dangerous. I know it from doing ride alongs with my son. If there was an illegal criminal that was out there that he was going to have to go arrest … it’s a scary situation. It’s not anything any of us want to deal with and to voluntarily be making our law enforcement jobs more dangerous and putting their lives at a higher risk I think is just wrong.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has introduced legislation, supported by Angel Families, that would allow Americans whose loved ones have been killed or murdered by illegal aliens to sue sanctuary jurisdictions for their role in protecting these suspects.

To date, there are nine sanctuary states across the U.S., as well as nearly 200 counties, cities, and towns that have implemented sanctuary policies to shield criminal illegal aliens from deportation.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.