Katie Abraham is my daughter. I tragically lost her to a drunken driver on Jan. 19, when she was 20 years old. She loved — and was loved — by so many people. With her magnetic energy, Katie was the person people wanted to be around. She was the friend people turned to and the teammate who made every practice fun and inspiring.
Losing a child unlocked a pain I never knew existed. Losing a child to a crime adds to the depths of despair. Having my child’s legacy be associated with a politically charged and controversial operation instead of the positivity and light she contributed to those within her community is simply unbearable.
When you search my daughter’s name, you won’t find much about who she was. You will find how she is associated with the federal immigration enforcement campaign “Operation Midway Blitz” in and around Chicago.
I have not spoken out since it began, but as Katie’s mother, I can no longer stay silent. The Department of Homeland Security said its immigration enforcement operation in Chicago is named in Katie’s honor. But Katie would not have wanted this.
Since she was young, Katie was intuitive, full of compassion and empathy, and able to see the big picture beyond her years. When she was 15, she was attacked by a German shepherd we were fostering. After a few weeks of healing, Katie expressed to me that she was glad we were fostering instead of a family with young children, who would have been hurt more severely than she had been. She was always looking out for others and saw the positive in all situations.
With this compassion and empathy in mind, Katie would not want to be associated with an operation in which kids witness their parents being taken into custody on their way to or from school. She wouldn’t support scaring kids with the use of military efforts in their neighborhoods or in their apartment buildings.
Whether or not you agree with Operation Midway Blitz is not the story I am here to write. I am here to tell the story of who Katie was. Katie avoided confrontation and tension. She had never spoken out on a political agenda; she was not an activist. She did not choose to be thrust into this political spotlight to advance an operation she knew nothing about.
A complex factor is that Katie’s father and his wife agreed to use Katie’s name in support of Operation Midway Blitz. I want to acknowledge the depths of her dad’s grief. I will never fault or question someone in the way they grieve.
Some may wonder: Why now? Frankly, I hoped it would go away. I learned my daughter’s name was being used this way when I was inundated by texts and phone calls from friends and family, and I have been struggling with it ever since. I hoped her name wouldn’t be associated with this operation in perpetuity. Being a grieving mother is difficult enough without being in the spotlight. But with each passing day, concerns about Operation Midway Blitz continue to mount. Katie would not want to be associated with this; it just isn’t consistent with who she was.
Association with the operation’s actions is not a positive reflection of who she was. I taught Katie to advocate for herself, and as heartbreaking as it is, Katie is no longer here to advocate for herself because of a crime that took place 150 miles from Chicago. She cannot advocate for herself and stand up to say “I am not a political pawn.” So I am here for her.
Katie Abraham is my daughter, and I am reclaiming her legacy.
Denise Lorence is a native of Illinois, where her daughter Katie Abraham grew up and attended elementary school and Glenbrook South High School. Katie was a student at Ohio University at the time of her death when she was visiting friends in Urbana on Jan. 19. She wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.
