Colorado family shares road to recovery, assistance after crash involving undocumented immigrant

A Colorado mom says a program implemented by President Donald Trump's administration helped her family after her daughter was the victim of a severe crash. On Thursday, she spoke on a national stage in Washington, D.C., and was pictured hugging top Trump officials and other families in this federal program called VOICE.

VOICE stands for the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement. It's a program President Trump created in his first term. Then former President Biden dismantled it in favor of a program his administration said was more inclusive.

When President Trump took office again, he reinstated VOICE, which provides services to victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. While studies suggest undocumented individuals are less likely to commit a crime than native-born individuals, the Parker family says the VOICE program provided them with information they were not getting elsewhere.

"She knew her own mind from a very young age," said Parker resident Patti Fox of her daughter Carissa Aspnes.

Fox describes her daughter as strong-willed and as a passionate student in esthetician school.

"She had big, huge dreams and whatever she put her mind to, she achieved," Fox said.

On the evening of March 28, 2025, Aspnes's mom says the 22-year-old hopped on the back of her friend's motorcycle, wearing a helmet and protective gear. Around 10:30 p.m., Aurora Police say, after getting off I-225, a car crossed multiple lanes of traffic onto South Parker Road, pulling into the path of the motorcycle Aspnes was riding. The motorcycle hit the car, then crashed into the median.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare," Fox said.

Fox made it to the hospital as Aspnes was going in for emergency surgery.

"I couldn't recognize her. Her face was bloody and bruised," Fox recalled.

Despite doctors' predictions, Aspnes survived. But she had major trauma to the right hemisphere of her brain.

"It was about the worst kind of an injury that you can get without dying," Fox said.

Today, Aspnes is unable to speak, minimally conscious and needs constant care. She eats from a tube and needs a wheelchair.

"We grieve the loss of who she was when she's right in front of us," Fox said.

Police say the driver of the car involved in the crash was another 22-year-old woman, Valeria Bermudez Marcano. They say Marcano fled the scene and abandoned her car, then an hour later turned herself in. She was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury, among other charges.

"She didn't have insurance, and our medical bills were in the seven figures," Fox said.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told CBS Colorado that Marcano is from Venezuela and entered the U.S. illegally in 2023. The agency says she was placed into immigration proceedings in 2024.

Fox says Marcano was released within two days on a $500 bond.

"I am not going to lie, my mother's heart, I wanted her to suffer. I wanted her to pay," Fox said.

ICE Denver says Marcano pleaded guilty to charges in Aspnes's accident in January of this year and was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution.

The agency arrested Marcano, and she was deported back to Venezuela on March 2.

"To me, her deportation is the only justice that we were going to see," Fox said.

Today, Fox says she's forgiven Marcano.

"It was a long road to forgiveness, and I forgive her. But it's not okay to let this continue to happen to other families there. There has to be change," Fox said.

Now she's turned to advocating against sanctuary policies, both at the state level and through support of federal immigration actions.

"We've got to change some things; sanctuary policies are not without victims," Fox said.

Fox feels like her daughter's tragedy fell through the cracks because of political reasons and says she was initially told by police that Marcano was a citizen.

"Why were we not getting information? Why did we fall through the cracks like we did? Why were we not told the truth for so long? And why did it feel like Valeria had more rights than we did?" Fox asked.

Fox says she has empathy for immigrants and has lost friends over her vocal support of ICE.

"You know, I've gotten a lot of criticism for weaponizing what happened to my daughter and using her for political gain. I just told the truth. That's all I've done, is just told our lived experience," Fox said. "It's not that I don't have a heart for the plight of illegal immigrants. I often think, if I were a mom in another country and I could give my kid a different life, I'd do whatever it takes. But I would do it legally, and we do have those channels available."

CBS News recently reported that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump's first year back in office had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. CBS has also reported that the Trump administration deported people who entered the country legally through the Biden administration's CBP One program for asylum-seekers at the southern border.

As for Aspnes, Fox says she's as strong-willed as ever and continues to surpass every prediction that's ever made about her healing.

"My daughter is a fighter," said Fox. "Will I see her smile? We don't know. We believe in a very big God."