Trump signs order declaring Feb. 22 'National Angel Family Day'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump signed an order Monday establishing Feb. 22 as "National Angel Family Day," seeking to draw attention to crimes committed by those living in the country illegally.

"Angel families" is a term coined by the Trump administration to refer to the families of individuals who lost a loved one due to the actions of undocumented migrants.

"Americans like Lakin, and Grant, and Javier, Joshua, Rocky, Rachel Kayla, these are great people, and we're never going to forget them. I'll never forget them," Trump said during an event featuring several family members who lost relatives as the result of crimes committed by undocumented migrants.

"This is a group of people that, for whatever reason, I just feel, maybe the warmest about," he added.

A copy of Trump's proclamation hails Trump's efforts to restrict the flow of undocumented people across the US-Mexico border, saying the president is calling "on the American people to assemble in their respective places of worship to pay homage to the victims killed by illegal aliens and to those taken by the fentanyl epidemic."

"I further call upon public officials, community leaders, and all citizens to end the violence and lawlessness that have claimed so many innocent lives," it adds.

Trump critics point to statistics showing that undocumented migrants are less likely to commit crime than people who were born in the United States. Trump’s exaggerations of what he calls “migrant crime” paint a distorted picture, they argue.