In televised plea for wall, Trump cites murder of Indian-origin cop

The police officer, Corporal Ronil Singh, 33, was shot dead at a traffic stop a day after Christmas by an illegal immigrant named Gustavo Perez Arriaga. Arriaga was planning to flee to Mexico when he killed the Corporal Ronil ‘Ron’ Singh.

In his televised address to the US, President Donald Trump, while demanding $5.7 billion to build a wall on the border with Mexico, cited the murder of an Indian-origin police officer who was killed a day after Christmas.

In his televised speech in which he asked for $5.7billion, Trump referred to slain Indian-origin police officer as a ‘national hero’. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (REUTERS)

The police officer, Corporal Ronil Singh, 33, was shot dead at a traffic stop a day after Christmas by an illegal immigrant named Gustavo Perez Arriaga. Arriaga was planning to flee to Mexico when he killed the Corporal Ronil ‘Ron’ Singh.

In his televised speech from the Oval Office, Trump said, “America’s heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien, who just came across the border. The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country.”

Last week, Trump spoke to Ronil’s widow, Amanika ‘Mika’ Chand-Singh and expressed his condolences.

Trump has described the situation of illegal immigrants in the US as a “growing crisis” that has hurt millions of Americans.

Listing out other such crimes, Trump asked, “How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?”

“To those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask: Imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken?” he said.

He called on the Congress to “pass a bill that ends this crisis” and asked every citizen to “Call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades, secure our border.”