Kristi Noem relaunches office to help victims of immigrant crime
The Trump administration is relaunching a key office that serves victims of immigrant crime, highlighting its commitment to combating border-related issues and its consequences.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is relaunching the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office, according to a press release shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation. VOICE, which was shuttered just months after President Joe Biden entered office in 2021, offers key support services to victims of immigrant crime and their family members.
“I met with Angel Families who lost a loved one because of an illegal alien who should never have been in our country,” Noem said in a prepared statement. “The previous administration ignored these families and the other victims of illegal alien crime.”
“With the re-launching of the VOICE Office, we are giving victims and their families access to resources and support services,” Noem continued.
The VOICE Office will serve to help victims of migrant crime understand the immigration enforcement and removal process, provide assistance in signing up for automated custody status information on criminal migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and provide additional history on illegal migrants to families, according to DHS.
The office will also instruct where a victim may be able to provide a victim impact statement, and provide access to social service professionals and other contacts to help victims connect with other needed resources.
VOICE was first launched in 2017 during the first Trump administration, serving as a resource for those who had been victimized by illegal migrants and other foreign nationals. However, the Biden administration — as part of its effort to completely gut the immigration enforcement apparatus built by the Trump White House — nixed the office in June 2021.
Following Biden’s decision to shutter the VOICE office and oversee an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, a number of high-profile crimes were allegedly committed by illegal migrants under his watch.
Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student, was murdered in February 2024 by Venezuelan illegal migrant Jose Ibarra, prompting state and federal lawmakers to pass legislation tightening immigration enforcement. Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Texas girl, was found dumped in a north Houston creek in June 2024, with Venezuelan illegal migrants Franklin Joe Pena Ramos and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel accused of sexually abusing and killing her.
Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, will be one of several angel parents in attendance Wednesday for Noem’s relaunch of the VOICE Office, the DCNF has learned. Since her daughter’s brutal killing, Nungaray has served as an advocate for tougher immigration laws and has appeared alongside President Donald Trump in a number of press events.
Other angel moms to attend Wednesday will be Sabine Durden-Coulter, the mother of a California sheriff’s dispatcher who was killed in 2012 when his motorcycle was hit by an illegal migrant who reportedly had a history of DUIs, and Tammy Nobles, the mother of a 20-year-old who was raped and strangled to death in her home in July 2022 by an illegal migrant teen, and other angel parents.
Also in attendance will be Amanda Kiefer, a woman victimized by an illegal migrant who was kept out of prison because of a left-wing initiative launched by then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris. Kiefer was left with a fractured skull in 2008 when Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal migrant from Honduras, snatched her purse and hopped into a car that then attempted to run her over.
Kiefer said the incident changed her perspective on politics and she has since become a vocal Trump supporter.
“President Trump and I will continue to remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets and make America safe again,” Noem said.
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