A still-grieving mom whose teenaged son was murdered by an illegal immigrant gangbanger under disturbingly similar circumstances to the July 1 slaying of Kathryn Steinle praises Donald Trump for "trying to do something" about a failed immigration system that allowed the double tragedies.
"It's amazing to me that the same incident is still going on today," Iraq war veteran Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, whose 17-year-old son Jamiel Jr. was gunned down in Los Angeles in 2008,
tells Britain's Daily Mail.
"It's like, when will the public wake up and do something. And this guy who is running for president,
Donald Trump, he's trying to do something and they're trying to shut him down."
"I believe in what he's saying," Shaw tells the newspaper. "He's trying to fix the borders and do all the things people should have done a long time ago.'
Shaw says she's "angry" at the current immigration policy.
"It makes me sad, it makes me angry, it makes me frustrated," she tells the Daily Mail.
Her son, a Los Angeles High School football star, was shot twice near his home in March 2008 by Pedro Espinoza, who mistook the teen for a rival gang member. Espinoza had been released from jail a day earlier after serving four months of an eight-month sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a police officer, the Daily Mail notes.
But the gangbanger lied about his immigration status – and had authorities checked, they would have found him ordered for deportation. Espinoza was
sentenced to death in 2012.
The case echoes
Steinle's fatal shooting by suspect Francisco Sanchez, 45, who was deported five times before he allegedly opened fire on the 32-year-old San Francisco woman.
"I still don't understand why it happened, just like what happened in San Francisco, why wasn't this guy deported after he was released from prison," Shaw tells the Daily Mail. "'Sanctuary City.' That's crazy."
Shaw says when she first heard of Steinle's slaying, "I said, 'oh no, not again.' She was so pretty and so young and to be with her father and her brother when it happened, just enjoying her day, and then all of a sudden no more."
Shaw, currently based at Fort Hood, Texas, as a supply specialist, said the Steinle case brought all the memories back of her son's slaying.
"I remember crying a lot when I was told about Jamiel because I was still in Iraq," she tells the Daily Mail. "I was screaming and crying, I wanted to help find the guy, but I felt completely helpless.
"And then when I found out he was an illegal alien, I felt everyone was trying to keep it quiet, I felt like because he was an illegal alien it was alright that he killed my son.
"It felt like an American citizen living in the United States is not worth anything, but my son was worth something."
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