There is a fundamental question at the heart of our immigration debate that we rarely ask:

What responsibility does a state assume when it deliberately limits cooperation with the federal government, and can it then disclaim responsibility for the consequences of that choice?

I ask because my daughter Katie is dead.

Katie was 20 years old when she was killed in Urbana, Illinois, on January 19, 2025.

According to court records, the man who killed her was a Guatemalan national who had previously been deported and later reentered the U.S. in 2022. He used false identities, including the identity of a Mexican national, while in Illinois. Illinois then issued him a driver's license under that identity.

According to court records, he could not read, write or speak English or Spanish. He spoke K'iche', a Mayan language.

Then he drove nearly 80 miles per hour while intoxicated and slammed into the car carrying Katie and her friends. Two young women died. Three others were seriously injured.

But the story did not begin at that intersection.

How did someone previously deported return to the U.S.? How did someone using a false identity obtain an Illinois driver's license? What screening, verification and information sharing occurred? What did Illinois know that the federal government did not, what did the federal government know that Illinois did not, and what risks might have been identified if that information had been shared?

I cannot tell you that any single policy caused Katie's death. I cannot tell you that better cooperation would have saved her. No one can.

But her death made one thing impossible for me to accept: government can make deliberate choices, restrict cooperation and........

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