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Mom of girl allegedly killed by illegals says wildlife refuge renaming ‘means the world’ to family

Mom of girl allegedly killed by illegals says wildlife refuge renaming ‘means the world’ to family

EXCLUSIVE: Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose murder authorities say was at the hands of two illegal immigrants suspected to be Tren de Aragua gang members, told Fox News Digital that renaming a local wildlife refuge in her daughter’s honor would mean “the world” to her family. Jocelyn Nungaray was sexually assaulted and strangled to death, allegedly by two Venezuelan illegals, Franklin Jose Pena Ramos and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, who were let through the southern border during the Biden administration. Her body was found tied up in a bayou in Houston. Since her daughter’s murder, Alexis Nungaray has become a vocal advocate for increased border security and a supporter of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Nungaray said the tragic manner of Jocelyn’s death “takes away [from] who she was as a person.” However, she said that the renaming of a 39,000-acre wildlife refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast preserves Jocelyn’s memory for what she loved in life.  TRUMP HONORS LIVES OF LAKEN RILEY, JOCELYN NUNGARAY WHILE CELEBRATING STRIDES ON SECURING BORDER Trump issued an executive order on March 5 renaming the former Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Houston to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, have since introduced bills to enshrine Trump’s executive order into law, making it more difficult for a future president to change the name of the refuge back. The Senate has already passed the bill, and Babin is working to pass it in the House. Babin told Fox News Digital that his bill to codify Trump’s renaming of the refuge after Jocelyn is receiving bipartisan support and that he expects it will be passed by the House soon and be immediately signed by the president. “This is a beautiful place. And if we name it after her, I think we will preserve her legacy,” he said. “The main thing we need to remember is that this can never be allowed to happen again,” he added. “We get this thing in law, codified, no future president can ever undo this. And so, we will have a memory of what happens when you have bad policies that can create a system that will allow this to happen to innocent people like Jocelyn.” TEXAS LAWMAKERS SEEK TO GET FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT FOR BIDEN-ERA BORDER CONTROL EXPENSES Nungaray said the effort to rename the refuge “touches every part of my heart and my family’s heart.” “Everyone who knew Jocelyn knew she loved animals so much, knew she loved nature, wildlife,” explained Nungaray. “She truly loved all animals and all creatures, and she wanted every animal to have a place to call home.” “Knowing that this national wildlife refuge is a place for a bunch of wild animals that travel through the country, and it is somewhere that they can call home, and it is somewhere that they can find a place of safety for them. I just know it would absolutely mean the world to her to know she has something in honor of her in that nature.” She said that seeing the signs going up around Houston bearing her daughter’s name is “bittersweet.”  TEXAS GANG MEMBERS SENTENCED FOR HUMAN SMUGGLING AFTER HIGH-SPEED BORDER CHASES “I went out there to just go see what it was about, what it was like, and the amount of peace I felt just being there, it was just so pure and so peaceful,” said Nungaray. “Immediately I thought Jocelyn would love this. She would love to be out here.”  CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “She wasn’t just a 12-year-old girl who was strangled and left in a bayou of water,” Nungaray went on. “She was a very creative, talented, free-spirited 12-year-old girl.”  Smiling, Nungaray added that Jocelyn “was very quirky” and “an old soul.” She liked dressing in 1990s-style cargo jeans and Converse and loved listening to music from as far back as the 1940s and 1950s. “She was very different and unique. She was an amazing friend,” said Nungaray. TED CRUZ MOCKS ‘CRAZY TOWN’ DEMS AS MARYLAND SENATOR GETS DEFENSIVE ABOUT ADVOCACY FOR ALLEGED MS-13 MEMBER Nungaray said she is very grateful to Trump for both his support and for “keeping his promises” regarding immigration enforcement. “I support immigration, but I say there’s just a right way and a wrong way to do it,” she explained. “He’s protecting the people, and he’s taking consideration to the people, us the citizens and making sure we’re safe and our kids are safe, women are safe, that we’re all safe in our communities.” “We’ve still got a long way to go,” she went on. “But I will always advocate for her and be her voice and stand up for better border control and immigration laws. Because I know one-million percent Jocelyn’s death should have been preventable.”

AI Melania: First lady embarks on ‘new frontier’ in publishing with audiobook of memoir

AI Melania: First lady embarks on ‘new frontier’ in publishing with audiobook of memoir

EXCLUSIVE: First lady Melania Trump is launching an audiobook of her memoir using artificial intelligence (AI) audio technology in multiple languages, Fox News Digital has learned. The first lady released her first memoir, “Melania,” last year. This week, she is breaking new ground by releasing “Melania, the Audiobook,” which has been “created entirely” with AI. “I am proud to be at the forefront of publishing’s new frontier – the intersection of artificial intelligence technology and audio,” Trump told Fox News Digital. MELANIA TRUMP TO RELEASE ‘COLLECTOR’S EDITION’ OF MEMOIR FEATURING IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHED BY FORMER FIRST LADY The first lady said ElevenLabs AI developed “an AI-generated replica of my voice under strict supervision, which will establish an unforgettable connection with my personal story, in multiple languages for listeners worldwide.” ElevenLabs AI CEO Mati Staniszewski told Fox News Digital that they are “excited that Melania Trump trusted our technology to power this first-of-its-kind audiobook project.” “We look forward to helping bring this book to the public in many other languages, in the first lady’s own voice, soon,” Staniszewski said. MELANIA TRUMP’S MEMOIR SOARS TO TOP SPOT ON SEVERAL AMAZON ‘BEST SELLERS’ LISTS WEEKS BEFORE ITS RELEASE The English version of the audiobook is expected to be available on MelaniaTrump.com. Later this year, it will be released in multiple languages, including Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese. Meanwhile, billboards to promote the audiobook will be up in Times Square in New York City as well as in Los Angeles and Miami; the billboards will be up for one month in all three cities. The Times Square billboard will feature the video below.  Upon the release of the memoir last year, the first lady told Fox News Digital that writing her story was “an amazing journey filled with emotional highs and lows.” “Each story shaped me into who I am today,” she said. “Although daunting at times, the process has been incredibly rewarding, reminding me of my strength, and the beauty of sharing my truth.”  “Melania” is the first lady’s first book. She released the original book along with a special collector’s edition that includes photos hand-selected by the first lady, many she photographed herself of her home and of various trips she has taken around the world. 

WATCH: Rubio on Dems saying they regret voting for him: ‘Confirmation I’m doing a good job’

WATCH: Rubio on Dems saying they regret voting for him: ‘Confirmation I’m doing a good job’

Marco Rubio told Fox News that far-left Democrats espousing regret over voting to confirm him as secretary of state is likely just “confirmation” that he is doing a good job. Democrat Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday that he “regret[ted] voting” to confirm him as secretary of state after indicating as much on “Fox News Sunday” in March. Rubio shot back at the hearing that Van Hollen’s regret just proves he is doing a good job, and he subsequently told Fox News that the same goes for other Democrats who are expressing regret over their nod of approval to him earlier this year when he was confirmed by the Senate 99-0. “In some cases, depending on … whoever you’re talking about and what they stand for, the fact that they don’t like what I’m doing is a confirmation I’m doing a good job,” Rubio said. “That’s how I feel about it.” ADAM SCHIFF TELLS EPA’S LEE ZELDIN HE’LL CAUSE CANCER AFTER SHOUTFEST: ‘COULD GIVE A RAT’S A–‘ A growing number of Democrats are coming out against Rubio despite voting to confirm him, with the bulk of the criticism describing him as a sell-out to the Trump administration. “I don’t recognize Secretary Rubio,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., added during the Tuesday Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Van Hollen, noting that in the past she had viewed him as “a bipartisan” and “pragmatic” person.  “I’m not even mad anymore about your complicity in this administration’s destruction of U.S. global leadership. I’m simply disappointed,” Rosen said. DEMS WARN HOUSE REPUBLICANS WILL PAY PRICE AT BALLOT BOX FOR PASSING TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ Last week, Democrat Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz lamented that Rubio has aligned himself “so closely” with President Donald Trump. “President Trump’s narrow and transactional view of the world is not news to anybody. But what is genuinely surprising to me is that Secretary Rubio is aligning himself so closely with it,” Schatz said during a live event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations last week. “This is someone who, up until four months ago, was an internationalist. Someone who believed in America flexing its powers in all manners, but especially through foreign assistance,” Schatz continued. “And yet, he is now responsible for the evisceration of the whole enterprise. He’s a colleague. I voted for him. We talk all the time. But what I’m trying to understand is: What happened?” Schatz noted that he hopes to see Rubio “reemerge, reassert himself and save the enterprise.” Rubio’s supportive stance on Trump’s foreign aid cuts, his defense of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his alleged lack of action to help get him back to the U.S., his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, and Rubio’s decision to pull visas from foreign college students in the U.S. for stoking anti-Israel sentiment on university campuses are all issues Democrats have pointed to for why they regret voting to confirm Rubio. The secretary’s alleged role in bringing white South African refugees to the U.S. was also something for which Rubio was chastised by Democrats during his Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump,” Democrat Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said in March during an interview on CNN. “Marco Rubio has not, and that’s been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate.”