A new documentary released Tuesday sheds light on the tragedy of the crisis at the southern U.S. border through the story of a grandmother and her young granddaughter who were killed by a human smuggler working for a Mexican drug cartel.
The short film from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, describes how the smuggler, who was an American citizen, reportedly smashed his vehicle into a car driven by 71-year-old Maria Alvarez and her 7-year-old granddaughter Emilia Tambunga while trying to evade police in Texas last March.
The smuggler, 22-year-old Rassian Natery Comer, was carrying 11 illegal immigrants in his vehicle at the time, two of whom also died in the crash, according to reports.
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In the documentary, Emilia's mother, Elisa Tambunga, and grandfather describe the pain they went through upon first finding out about the deaths of their loved ones and partially blame the loss on the lack of border security.
"There's no other way to sugar coat — my 7-year-old was murdered, my mom was murdered because of our border crisis," Elisa says in the film, describing how she was told by investigators that the smuggler was recruited by the cartel on TikTok.
She expressed dismay that the surviving illegal immigrants in Comer's vehicle were "just let go" without any interviews or questioning, and she noted the smuggler had been indicted and was still sitting in jail.
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"Every day is a painful day for me. I'm waking up to an empty house," Emilia's grandfather says in the film. "Emilia was my little partner and I haven't thrown nothing away. I've got it all in her room… I've been sleeping here lately in her bunk bed. I haven't had the courage to sleep in my wife's — our bed."
Elisa declared that the blood of her daughter and mother is "on everybody's hands, from the administration down to local officials, from President Biden, to [DHS Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas, to our senators, to our governors, all of them."
"Everybody has the ability to create change in those offices, and they're using it as a political playground instead," she added.
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According to Heritage, lawmakers should use think of the tragedy and honor Maria and Emilia by ending the border crisis.
The group has also sought to highlight that, according to the Center of Immigration Studies, at least 3.4 million illegal immigrants have been allowed into the U.S. or evaded authorities under the Biden administration, and that the vast majority of the deadly drug fentanyl has come into the country across the Southern border.
