President Donald Trump has agreed to grant a visa to the mother of a 15-year-old Ghanaian immigrant who was gunned down in the Bronx last week, allowing her to travel to the United States to bury her son.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the agreement in a Saturday social media post, saying he had spoken directly with the President. The mayor said the visa would be issued immediately so the mother, who remained in Ghana while her son built a new life in America, could "say goodbye to her son in person."
The victim, Javits Frimpong, had moved from West Africa to live with his father roughly a year ago. On Thursday morning, the tenth-grader was walking to Dream Yard Preparatory School — an 18-minute route across Claremont Park near Crotona Park — when three masked attackers ambushed him, shot him once in the abdomen, and fled. He died of his injuries.
Wednesday, the day before the murder, marked the first anniversary of Javits' arrival in the United States. His father, Thomas Frimpong, 60, said the boy dreamed of becoming a physician.
According to the Washington Post, police have not offered a motive, but the boy's father said he was being bullied at school. The New York Times reported that the shooting occurred close to the family's home.
At a Saturday gathering at the corner of E. 171st St. near Crotona Place — the spot where his son was killed — Thomas Frimpong sobbed as mourners and local elected officials lamented what they described as a country that failed the teenager. The New York Post reported that officials at the scene blasted lax gun laws and the Trump administration's immigration policies, which they claimed played a part in the teen's death.
"Javits came to America from Ghana hoping for a better education and a brighter future," a statement read at the gathering said. "African children should not come to this country seeking opportunity only to experience bullying, violence and fear."
Javits' sister, Millicent Frimpong, said it was important for their mother to come to the U.S. to bury her son, and that she had spoken with someone from the Mayor's Office to speed up the visa process. As of Saturday, more than $715,000 had been raised on a GoFundMe for funeral expenses, with the service expected to be held in the U.S.
The announcement came via an Instagram post from Mayor Mamdani, whose office publicized the agreement on social media. The post's caption indexed by our newsroom read: "Mayor Zohran Mamdani says President Donald Trump is..." — the full text of the post was not available in the indexed material, but the mayor's public statements confirmed the visa agreement.
The White House has not issued a formal statement on the visa grant, and it is not yet known whether the administration will comment further on the case. The agreement between a Republican president and a Democratic mayor — one who has frequently clashed with the administration over immigration enforcement — marks a rare point of cooperation amid the administration's mass deportation agenda.
Police have not announced any arrests in the shooting. Anyone with information is urged to contact the NYPD.
Our Take
Here's what the radical Left and their media allies won't tell you: this is what leadership looks like. A father lost his son — a boy who came to this country legally, who wanted to be a doctor, who was walking to school. And when the call came, President Trump answered. No bureaucracy. No delays. A mother gets to bury her child.
But let's be clear about the rest of the story. The officials who showed up at that Bronx street corner to mourn Javits also used his death as a political prop, blaming "lax gun laws" and the President's immigration policies for a murder committed by three masked attackers. That's the same playbook we've seen for years: exploit a tragedy to push gun control and open borders.
The truth is simpler. Javits Frimpong was failed by a city that has spent years prioritizing criminals over law-abiding citizens, that has watched violence spike while progressive prosecutors look the other way. His killers are still on the street. The people who could identify them are still free. And the politicians who claim to care about "justice" are more interested in scoring points than in making sure the next Javits gets home safely.
President Trump made the right call. Now it's time for New York's leaders to do their jobs and put the monsters who did this behind bars. Anything less is a betrayal of a family that came here believing in the American dream.
