Washington DC - President Donald Trump's Republican Party is using a few isolated horror stories to demonize immigrants and boost their vote ahead of a potentially disastrous midterm election.

A key part of the GOP's messaging is via emotional testimony from so-called "Angel Families" – relatives of people killed in isolated incidents committed by alleged undocumented migrants.

Trump's party hopes to use these stories to demonize the entire migrant population ahead of the November 3 midterms, reigniting a voter base obsessed with the idea that the US is being flooded by violent criminals.

Elizabeth Carter lost her son and daughter-in-law in a road crash a year ago in Oregon. The driver charged with homicide, Rajinder Kumar, is an undocumented Indian immigrant who obtained a truck driver's license in California.

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Kumar crossed the Mexico-US border illegally in 2022 and was detained. He was released in California pending a hearing, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

After the crash, a fundraising drive allowed him to post bail and be released pending trial, infuriating the Carter family. Now, the sad episode is being used as a political weapon by the Republican Party.

"We're rolling the dice with our children," Carter declared at a House of Representatives hearing, one of five such hearings the GOP have held to give a voice to such cases.

In another case, Sheridan Gorman was 18 this March when she went for a nighttime walk with friends along Lake Michigan near Chicago. An undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, Jose Medina, is accused of shooting her as she ran from him.

Gorman died, and her mother Jessica's harrowing testimony two months ago reverberated inside and outside Congress.

"The fact that American safety is a partisan issue blows my mind. It should be everyone's issue," the mother told AFP at a Justice Department event honoring Angel Families.