CRIME/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Donald J. Trump first reached out to them about three years ago, when he was regarded as a political sideshow and they were desperate for any attention to their plight. Today, thanks to the platform now afforded by President Trump, the group he calls ‘angel families’ — relatives of people killed by undocumented immigrants — have grown into a political force, helping him justify the most unpopular aspects of his administration’s immigration crackdown, and championing other candidates and causes devoted to limiting illegal immigration. It is a mutually beneficial, and deeply felt, relationship that resonates well beyond the families who have grown so close to Mr. Trump that he remembers their names and those of their deceased loved ones, and privately relays praise of their appearances on Fox News. The rotating group of families who have appeared at times with the president — totaling more than three dozen — provide a powerful rejoinder to criticism of Mr. Trump’s hard-line approach to immigration as heartless, in some ways embodying his gift for creating narratives that resonate more with his base than concrete policy proposals or statistics undermining his argument that unauthorized immigration leads to increases in crime.”
–Kenneth P. Vogel and Katie Rogers, “For Trump and ‘Angel Families,’ a Mutually Beneficial Bond,” The New York Times online, July 4, 2018