WESTLAKE VILLAGE – Don Rosenberg is a lifelong liberal who may have only one thing in common politically with President Donald Trump: his battle against illegal immigration.
Rosenberg became an activist on the issue after his 25-year-old son, Drew, was killed in a 2010 collision in San Francisco with a Honduran immigrant who had entered the country illegally, but been granted temporary immigration status. The Westlake Village resident now spends much of his spare time firing off letters to journalists, sounding off on TV programs such as Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” and pressing government agencies to release data related to illegal immigration.
“I’m trying to stop this from happening to other people,” Rosenberg said of losing his son Drew, a street-savvy law-school student who took a keen interest in news and politics like his father.
Rosenberg was among families from across the nation who attended the official launch of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The office is designed to support victims of crimes committed by “criminal aliens.”
“I’m really happy they’re doing this because I know what my wife and I had to go through — you’re finding your way because no one was really giving us any help,” the retired entertainment executive said.
Rosenberg, a former Democrat who today doesn’t identify with any political party, usually receives several calls a month from bereaved family members seeking information about a criminal living in the country illegally or they are searching for legal and financial help in the wake of a crime. He shares his personal experience, he said, and now will refer them to the VOICE office for greater support.
“The illegal aliens are not victims; they are the perpetrators,” Rosenberg said. “Many of them are nice, hardworking people … but there’s more than enough crime” that they commit.