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Donald Trump to meet with Remembrance Project in Houston

HOUSTON - Donald Trump is set to speak at a private luncheon at the Omni Hotel on the west side of Houston next week.

The event is happening Saturday, September 17 for a local group called The Remembrance Project.

We saw the group at Trump's rally in Austin and turns out they are based here in Houston. You've likely seen their Stolen Lives Quilt traveling across the country, so we wanted to verify who is behind it.

"She was a typical 17-year-old girl about to graduate from high school," said Carrie Ruiz, a mother whose daughter, Felicia Ruiz, was murdered in October of 1999.

"Halloween weekend, they carried it out. They ambushed her, they beat her, they cut her throat and they stabbed her over 39 times and left her in a field," said Ruiz.

Two people are now behind bars for her daughter's death. However, the mastermind behind it, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, is still on the run.

"His name is Jesus Gerardo Salazar, he liked our daughter and he went to school with her, but he was also in a gang called the Latin Kings," said Ruiz.

It's stories like Felicia's that got the attention of Donald Trump.

"He just kept looking at her picture like she mattered," said Ruiz.

He signed her picture and like he's done at many rallies now, called the family on stage to share their story.

"We are very happy and very fortunate that Mr. Trump has given our families a platform," said Maria Espinoza, National Director for The Remembrance Project.

However, the group is a non-profit. The organization points out on their website the IRS prevents them from endorsing candidates or participating in campaigns.

"They can personally make endorsements, absolutely. They can absolutely make endorsements, I can make an endorsement as an individual, but not as a Remembrance Project," said Espinoza.

Politics aside, this mom hopes all the attention will lead to justice.

"Stop and think about it, anybody out here could be affected the way our families been affected. They took away our only daughter. We can't get her back," said Ruiz.

We wanted to verify the numbers The Remembrance Project puts out there. They list 14 Texans killed by undocumented immigrants since 1998, 10 were here in Harris County.

Our team dug through court records and we were able to verify eight cases. Of those, six are murders and two intoxication manslaughters.

One case we simply couldn't find in court filings. In the final case, the suspect was born in Vietnam, but according to court documents did immigrate here legally.

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