A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on sanctuary city policies turned tense Tuesday when a father whose daughter suffered a catastrophic brain injury in a 2024 highway crash rejected lawmakers’ expressions of sympathy, telling them none had ever reached out to him personally.
The hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, was titled “Sanctuary Policies, Tragic Consequences.” Among the witnesses was Marcus Coleman, whose daughter Dalilah was five years old in June 2024 when a multi-vehicle crash caused by an 18-wheeler driver left her with a catastrophic brain injury and other serious injuries requiring lifelong therapy. The driver, Partap Singh, is a foreign national in the country illegally who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, had been issued a commercial driver’s license by California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
When some Democratic committee members offered condolences during the hearing, Coleman pushed back.
“I reject your guys’ sympathy, to be honest. There’s no way you are sorry. Not one of you guys has ever called me. Not one of you guys has ever reached out to me.”
Other exchanges at the hearing drew scrutiny. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA-12) argued that removing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes from communities was not the way to make Americans safer. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC-02) questioned the value of holding another hearing on the subject, saying to those present, including family members of crash victims: “I am confused about… why we’re having another hearing on something where we have active legislation.”
The comment echoed remarks made in June by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07) during an earlier hearing on the same topic. Jayapal told parents of people killed by illegal immigrants: “Unfortunately this hearing is the 4th time in this committee that we’ve had a hearing on sanctuary cities… There’s many other things that we could be doing.”
No Democrats Attend Separate Hearing on Child Exploitation
Separately on Tuesday, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement held a hearing addressing unaccompanied alien children and issues including sexual exploitation and organ harvesting. No Democratic members of the subcommittee attended.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) remarked on the absence, saying, “I don’t really think they care much.”
The hearings come as immigration enforcement and sanctuary city policies remain flashpoints in Congress ahead of the midterm elections, with lawmakers on both sides continuing to clash over how to balance border security with local governance.
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