The father of a seven-year-old girl who was reportedly permanently disabled in a truck crash caused by an illegal immigrant delivered an emotional rebuke of Democratic lawmakers during a congressional hearing Tuesday, accusing them of failing to protect Americans from illegal immigration.
Marcus Coleman addressed lawmakers as Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., looked on, telling them he did not accept their expressions of concern for his family.
“I reject your guys’ sympathy, to be honest with you,” Coleman said. “There’s no way you guys are sorry.”
Coleman accused the lawmakers of expressing sympathy publicly during the hearing without ever contacting him privately or acknowledging his family’s ordeal when encountering him in the halls of Congress.
“Not one of you guys have ever called me, not one of you guys have ever reached out to me, not one of you guys have sat there and seen me in the hallways and said, ‘Hey, sorry about your daughter,’” Coleman said.
“You guys do it right here while you’re grandstanding on top of your soapbox,” he added.
Two years earlier, an illegal immigrant from India who had been issued a commercial driver’s license in California crashed a big rig into the Coleman family’s vehicle.
Coleman’s daughter, Dalilah, suffered devastating injuries in the collision. She fractured her skull, broke her femur and sustained a traumatic brain injury that left her in a coma for three weeks.
Dalilah has since been diagnosed with diplegic cerebral palsy and global developmental delay.
The crash led Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., to introduce legislation called “Dalilah’s Law.” The bill would prevent states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to non-citizens and revoke licenses that had previously been approved.
Several versions of the proposed legislation have been introduced, but none has been passed.
During his testimony, Coleman criticized Democratic lawmakers for declining to support the bill and for failing to offer proposed changes that could secure their votes.
He accused them of focusing instead on sanctuary city and state policies that protect illegal immigrants from President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“You guys sit there and you guys talk about ICE invading cities,” Coleman said.
Coleman argued that immigration enforcement operations would require fewer federal agents if state officials cooperated by telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to collect individuals directly.
“If the state sat there and told ’em come pick up the person, it would take one or two people to do it,” Coleman said. “Instead they gotta send an army out there because now they have to look for them.”
The father concluded his remarks by returning to the life-changing injuries suffered by his daughter and placing responsibility on the lawmakers before him.
“My daughter doesn’t deserve this,” Coleman said.
He warned that other families continue to endure devastating incidents and accused lawmakers of bearing responsibility for failing to prevent them.
“Everyday something is happening to somebody,” Coleman said. “And it is your guys’ fault. I hold each and every one of you responsible for it, and I always will.”
