North Cook News

A Glenview father whose daughter was killed in a crash involving an undocumented immigrant is calling for changes to Illinois’ sanctuary state policies, speaking publicly at a Sept. 11 event organized by Concerned Parents of Illinois.

Joe Abraham’s daughter, Katie, 20, was killed in January in Urbana when a vehicle driven by Julio Cucul-Bol, an undocumented immigrant, struck the car she was riding in at high speed. Abraham shared his story with an audience of about 200 people.

“I'm standing here not as a powerful politician or a bureaucrat or anything like that,” Abraham said. “I'm a guy who lost his daughter by an illegal alien. She was killed in a drunk and driving car accident. So, when he slammed into my daughter's car, she was in the passenger seat on the driver's side, at 78 miles an hour. She died on the scene.”

Cucul-Bol, a previously deported Guatemalan national using a Mexican alias, was allegedly driving without a license. Abraham said Cucul-Bol had been pulled over previously in Urbana but was released.

“Five girls in the car, Honda Civic. Julio Cucul-Bol, who is a Guatemalan national using a Mexican alias, without a driver's license, was pulled over before in Urbana and let go,” Abraham told the North Cook News.

Cucul-Bol had a prior DUI arrest, but due to the Illinois TRUST Act—which limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies—he was released. Abraham said he has not been able to get full details of that case.

"I don't know what happened with that case,” he said. “I can't get information because of this investigation.”

Abraham described the crash, saying Katie had been sitting behind the driver when Cucul-Bol struck the vehicle.

“She took the brunt of the impact. Katie died on the scene, and her friend died the next day. He showed his true character. He got out of the car and ran. Didn't wait for the first responders, didn't call 9-1-1, nothing. He turned tail and ran."

Katie, a junior at Ohio University and a former water polo athlete, was later remembered alongside her friend Chloe Polzin, who became an organ donor after succumbing to her injuries.

Cucul-Bol fled to Texas and was apprehended near the Mexican border by U.S. Marshals.

“They caught him a few days later when the Trump administration came in and the US Marshals and the Border Patrol got serious,” Abraham said. “He was almost at the border when they got him.”

Abraham later attended a House Oversight hearing where Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other Democrats defended the state’s immigration policies. He said no elected officials acknowledged him.

“I was hoping that J.B. Pritzker might even tell me that it's okay that my daughter died because she died for a greater good and that this is the greater good,” he said. “Not one Illinois Democrat approached me. My own congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky, walked by me maybe six times, [and] didn't even look [in] my direction.”

“This is J.B. Pritzker, a stone's throw away, didn't look at me at all, acknowledging me,” he added. “So that's the day, to me, I started speaking out a little bit because I thought, I get it now, there is no compassion here. They don't care about me. They don't know Katie, so they don't care about Katie at all.”

As a result, Abraham said he would speak on behalf of candidates running against Democratic incumbents.

“I'm not necessarily seeking out this, but anyone wants to talk to me, any politician in Illinois that is trying to run against an incumbent, I'll talk on their side and their behalf,” he said. “Because whoever's in this state, this one-party Democrat, they need to leave. They're done.”

Abraham, the son of legal immigrants, said his family followed the law, paid taxes and expected basic safety.

“We are law abiding, we were productive, we raised three kids, productive kids, good kids,” he said. “We pay gouging taxes, and I ask them what I got for that. What did I get for that? All they need to do is provide some type of safety, some safe streets. We got none of that, we got nothing.”

From fiscal years 2023 to 2025, Illinois taxpayers are estimated to have spent $2.84 billion on services for undocumented immigrants, according to Republican lawmakers. This includes more than $2 billion in health care. GOP leaders have proposed a moratorium on those benefits and repeal of the TRUST Act.

“Illinois politicians helped kill my daughter,” Abraham said. “My tax dollars—mine… I almost kind of indirectly paid to kill my daughter, I helped fund my daughter's death.”

Abraham said Katie’s death reflects broader policy failures.

“She got a death sentence without due process. I got a life sentence,” he said. “She's not in some other country. She's not in some detention center I can go see. She's gone, she was killed, she's done. A beautiful, gentle soul.”

This month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz, named in Katie’s honor.

“Katie Abraham’s killer — a previously deported Guatemalan national — should never have been in our country. This senseless tragedy was 100 percent preventable,” DHS posted on X.

The operation focused on arresting undocumented immigrants with criminal histories who were released by Illinois jails despite federal detainer requests.

“They called me that Sunday night… before the operations. And they said, ‘hey, we're thinking of Katie. We'd like to honor her by calling this, you know, Midway Blitz—by honoring Katie for that and dedicating it to her,’” Abraham said.

“So I'm like, 'I'm all for that,’” he said. “I mean, criminals shouldn't be on the streets.”

“I just want to thank the folks down there for doing that,” Abraham said. “You know, thinking of Katie, because no one here thinks of Katie, no one in Illinois thinks of Katie.”

Abraham questioned the state’s reluctance to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

“The guy who killed Katie would have easily been filtered out,” he said. “And then work with the feds to filter those guys out and then keep the productive ones. Well, I don't understand the controversy there.”

He also criticized conditions in Illinois, including crime, taxes, and population loss.

“My wife is from Indiana. We see farmland turning into developments where Indiana folks are calling these people moving in ‘FIPs’—‘f***ing Illinois people.’ That’s literally what they tell us. In Wisconsin, the same thing.”

In 2024, Illinois ranked 48th in domestic outmigration, losing more than 56,000 residents. The state’s overall population grew due to immigration.

“You mismanage the state so severely that your citizens are leaving,” Abraham said. “And the only people coming in is you bringing illegals in here because you needed some apportionment, right? You needed some congressional seats.”

Abraham urged residents to demand political change.

“Whoever's running the state now needs to leave, and I know they won't leave on their own, so if I can help anyone in any way, I'll try to do that,” he said. “Other than that, I want other parents to know this is what’s happening out there, and you may not think it’s your kid because I didn’t think it was my kid, right?”

“I don’t know how to communicate the fact that it’s not good enough to play politics with our kids’ lives, that’s all. I mean, that’s the big thing. You’re playing politics with the kids, and that’s not right.”

“Have you buried a child?” he asked. “You haven’t buried a kid? I’m not sure I carry too much weight with what you have to say. Your words kind of ring hollow to me.”