Dad of girl left permanently disabled in crash with illegal immigrant rips Dems: ‘I reject your sympathy’
The father of a 7-year-old girl left permanently disabled after an illegal immigrant driving an 18-wheeler slammed into the vehicle she was traveling in tore into Democratic lawmakers during a fiery Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, rejecting their expressions of sympathy and accusing them of failing families like his.
"I reject your guys’ sympathy," Marcus Coleman, whose daughter Dalilah suffered a fractured skull, broken femur and traumatic brain injury in the 2024 California crash, told lawmakers during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on sanctuary policies across the United States.
Coleman said Democratic lawmakers had "never reached out to me" after his daughter’s catastrophic injuries.
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"Not one of you guys have ever sat there and seen me in the hallways and said, ‘Hey, sorry about your daughter.’ You guys do it right here where you guys are grandstanding on top of your soapbox," Coleman said. "This is when you guys care. Right here inside this room is the only time you guys care."
Coleman said his daughter "doesn’t deserve" what happened to her.
"She didn't ask for any of this," the father said. "The people that jumped the fence did though. They knew exactly what they were doing. They still chose to move forward in that direction. And every day something's happening to somebody, and it is your guys' fault. I hold each and every one of you responsible for it, and I always will."
Dalilah was critically injured in Southern California in 2024 when an 18-wheel tractor-trailer traveling at 60 mph slammed into a vehicle she was riding in.
Authorities identified the truck driver as Partap Singh, an illegal immigrant from India who had obtained a commercial driver's license in California. Singh was driving at an unsafe speed and failed to stop for traffic in a construction zone before the crash, authorities said.
The hearing focused on sanctuary policies in California, Colorado and Maryland and Republicans’ argument that the policies put Americans at risk by limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Coleman told lawmakers the consequences for his family have extended far beyond his daughter’s catastrophic injuries, saying he has stopped working as a truck driver and is now struggling financially while raising nine children.
"I'm no longer truck driving. I no longer make the money that we used to make. I'm now pinching pennies," Coleman said. "I have nine kids, by the way, that I take care of, and I had to sit there and stretch that."
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Another parent testifying at Tuesday’s hearing described the lasting toll a separate crash involving an illegal immigrant has taken on her family.
Patricia Fox said her daughter, Carissa "Luu" Aspnes, was permanently disabled after a March 2025 hit-and-run crash in Colorado involving an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Fox told lawmakers her daughter was thrown headfirst into a concrete barrier at nearly 50 mph and that the driver and passenger fled without checking whether she was alive.
"Despite her initial prognosis, Carissa survived. Praise God, but survival and recovery are not the same," Fox testified.
Fox said she now uses a Hoyer lift to get her adult daughter out of bed because Aspnes cannot sit up or stand on her own. She said she blends her daughter’s food and feeds her through a G-tube, administers her medications and bathes her, while sleeping lightly at night in case her pulse oximeter sounds an alarm.
"One collision created an entire family of victims," Fox said, arguing that her daughter’s case carried an additional source of anguish because of the accused driver’s immigration status.
"If an American citizen had hit my daughter, I wouldn't be here asking, ‘Why was somebody who had no lawful right to be in this country here to hit her in the first place?’" Fox said.
Fox later delivered a pointed message about the partisan divide over immigration policy, telling lawmakers that cases like her daughter’s "shouldn’t be partisan."
"The lives of American citizens should matter to both sides," Fox said. "We get it. You guys hate Trump. The campaign ads, they're all the same. Taking the fight to Trump, standing against Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.
"You need to love Americans more than you hate Trump," she added. "That's not partisan politics. It's literally your job."
Coleman also pointed to his wife, an immigrant who he said followed the legal process to come to the United States, while arguing that people who enter the country illegally should not be afforded the same treatment.
"My wife, an immigrant. She did what she's supposed to do," Coleman said. "She did exactly what she's supposed to do to get here."
Coleman saved one of his sharpest attacks for lawmakers who support sanctuary policies, telling them the consequences were sitting directly in front of them.
"I think that building needs to get checked for mold or something, because you guys are really out of your guys' mind thinking that sanctuary cities are the way to go," Coleman told the Democratic lawmakers.
"This is the end result of Sanctuary City right here," he said, pointing to his daughter