The Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas downplayed illegal immigrant crime just days before two illegal immigrants allegedly murdered a young girl in Houston.

Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), a Senate candidate challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in November, minimized illegal immigrant crime in a radio interview with host Dean Obeidallah on June 5, less than two weeks before 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was strangled to death.

“You’ll also hear Texans in our border communities, whether it’s Brownsville, or Laredo, or El Paso, who will …l tell you that this idea that their communities are just … riven with crime is completely wrong, right? And that’s not their experience,” claimed Allred.

Obeidallah went on to condemn former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party over their alleged “demonization” of illegal immigrants.

“One of the most distressing things has been listening to Trump and MAGA, which the entire party just about left is MAGA in the GOP, the demonization of immigrants,” the radio host said.

“It is heartbreaking to hear because in the entire discussion on the Right, there’s no sense of humanity,” Obeidallah continued. “I really wish it would be more off-putting to more Americans who understand that this is not, that’s not the kind of language we should be using,” he said, referencing Trump’s rhetoric on immigration.

Allred later said that he agreed with Obeidallah as he launched into his own critique of former Trump’s stance on immigration, also blaming the surge in migrants during the Biden administration on a cumbersome and “broken” system.

Less than two weeks after Allred’s discussion with Obeidallah, Nungaray was allegedly murdered by two illegal immigrants from Venezuela who entered the country under Biden’s watch. Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, were charged with Nungaray’s murder.

Prosecutors in the case say that ​​the two illegal immigrants “lured” Nungaray “under a bridge” where they “remained with her for over two hours, took her pants off, tied her up and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou.”

“I still see her face in the back of my head every day, all day. Keep getting little signs about her throughout the days, and it’s just been a very, very hard time for me and my family,” said Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nugngaray. “But the amount of support I’ve been getting from everybody … from the bottom of my heart so appreciated.”

As a congressman, Allred has repeatedly chosen to shield illegal immigrants from deportation. Allred voted against a bill that made assaulting a police officer a deportable offense and voted ‘no’ on a motion in support of a bill that would require illegal immigrants who were denied amnesty due to criminal, terrorism, or gang connections to be deported.

Rep. Allred did not respond to a request for comment.

More than 10 million people have crossed the border during Biden’s presidency, with an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways recorded. There were 415,000 total reported gotaways for 2018, 2019, and 2020 under the Trump administration.