Jessica Coleman
Jacqueline Medina, mother of Edna teen Lizbeth Medina, who was murdered in 2023, attended the 2026 State of the Union Address as a guest of President Donald Trump on February 24.
President Trump mentioned both Lizbeth and Jacqueline in his almost two-hour speech, while speaking about illegal immigration.
“In 2023, a 16year-old high school cheerleader named Lizbeth Medina was supposed to perform in her town’s Christmas parade, but she never arrived,” he said. “Her mother, Jacqueline, went home to look for her, and she found her lying dead in a bathtub, bleeding profusely after being stabbed 25 times. Lizbeth’s killer was a previously arrested illegal alien who had broken in and brutally, just brutally extinguished the brightest light in her family’s life.
Jacqueline has been vocal about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s desth, including the fact that the man convicted of Lizbeth’s murder, Rafael Govea Romero, was an undocumented immi- grant who overtayed his visa. This has caused some to accuse Jacqueline of being too political, or to speculate that she is being used as a political pawn, but she says that’s just not true.
“Being invited to attend the State of the Union was not about politics for me, it was about my daughter,” said Jacqueline. “My daughter, Lizbeth Medina, was not a headline. She was my child. She had dreams, laughter, and a future that should still be here. I accepted the invitation because I made a promise to her. I told my family that this nation would hear Lizbeth’s story — and that I would take it as far as I had to so that what happened to her would not happen to another baby girl. Being present in that room was part of keeping that promise.”
She has also been openly critical of the plea bargain that put Romero in prison, because the sentence came with the possibility of parole.
She said that she feels she has a responsibility to be her daughter’s voice, and to hopefully save others who would be in Lizbeth’s position.
“My mission is prevention, accountability, and protection. I want policies that protect families, systems that work, and I want grieving parents to be heard and not have to fight,” she said.
Jacqueline said the days are hard, and the load is heavy but she persists, for Lizbeth, for victims like her, and to prevent future victims.
“ I carry Lizbeth with me in everything I do. Being her mother did not end when she was taken from me. That role transformed into advocacy. When I feel like I can’t keep going, I remember that if I stop speaking, her story stops reaching the rooms it needs to enter.”
