A father whose daughter was permanently disabled by an illegal immigrant driving an 18-wheeler told Democratic lawmakers to keep their sympathy — because they're the ones who created the conditions that destroyed his family.
Marcus Coleman testified Tuesday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, which was examining sanctuary policies in California, Colorado, and Maryland. His daughter Dalilah was five years old in 2024 when an illegal immigrant from India named Partap Singh slammed an 18-wheel tractor-trailer into the vehicle she was riding in at 60 mph in a Southern California construction zone. She suffered a fractured skull, a broken femur, and traumatic brain injury.
Singh had obtained a commercial driver's license in California — a sanctuary state that has a documented history of improperly issuing CDLs to noncitizens, as the Daily Caller reported.
"I reject your guys' sympathy, to be honest with you," Coleman told lawmakers. "There's no way you guys are sorry. 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 ever sat there and seen me in the hallways and said, 'Hey, sorry about your daughter.'"
"You guys do it right here while you guys are grandstanding on top of your soapbox," he said. "This is when you guys care. Right here inside this room is the only time you guys care."
Coleman said he's had to quit truck driving and is now struggling to support nine children. "I'm no longer truck driving. I no longer make the money that we used to make. I'm now pinching pennies," he testified.
"My daughter doesn't deserve this," Coleman said. "She didn't ask for any of this. 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."
He wasn't alone. Patricia Fox testified that her daughter, Carissa Aspnes, was permanently disabled in a March 2025 hit-and-run in Colorado involving an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. Fox said the driver and passenger fled without checking whether her daughter was alive. Aspnes was thrown headfirst into a concrete barrier at nearly 50 mph. Fox now uses a Hoyer lift to get her adult daughter out of bed because she cannot sit up or stand on her own, according to Fox News' coverage of the hearing.
President Trump has introduced "Dalilah's Law," which would restrict illegal aliens' eligibility to obtain commercial driver's licenses — a direct response to the California CDL system that put Singh behind the wheel of a rig.
The political class writes the sanctuary laws, issues the licenses, and opens the doors. Then they sit in hearing rooms and offer condolences to the families who pay the price. Coleman wasn't interested in the performance. The question is whether anyone in Washington is interested in changing the policy — or whether the hearings are just another kind of grandstanding.
