Suburban ‘Angel Mom’ turns grief into advocacy for immigration enforcement
Federal immigration agents have faced criticism for their conduct in the Chicago area since the launch of Operation Midway Blitz one year ago.
They also have few more staunch defenders than Jennifer Bos. The Antioch woman is grateful to ICE agents for capturing a man who authorities allege was in the country illegally when he stuffed her daughter’s body in a garbage container for 51 days last year.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, had been free on pretrial release last year when ICE agents arrested him in Chicago. The former Waukegan man now sits in a Lake County jail awaiting a November trial on charges including concealment of a homicidal death, abuse of a corpse and obstructing justice.
“If ICE hadn’t stepped in and detained him, he would still be free, living his life in the comfort of his own home,” Jennifer Bos said.
A year after the launch of Operation Midway Blitz on Sept. 8, 2025, Bos is among a group who the Trump administration have labeled “Angel Moms,” mothers whose child’s death was connected to an undocumented immigrant.
She’s advocated on behalf of federal immigration enforcement in media appearances, attended administration events in Washington, D.C., and in July gave emotional testimony about her daughter before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings for Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Bos also has been a vocal critic of Illinois’ TRUST Act, which bans local police departments from assisting federal immigration enforcement, and other sanctuary policies.
“Because of these sanctuary laws, (federal agents are) forced to come in and be forceful, whereas they didn’t have to do that before,” she said.
Bos visited ICE’s Chicago Field Office this year for the one-year anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security’s relaunch of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) office, which provides families with access to support services.
She also credits ICE and DHS for disrupting fentanyl supply chains and rescuing victims of human trafficking.
Bos believes her 37-year-old daughter Megan was a victim of that fentanyl trade.
In April 2025, Megan’s partially decomposed body was found in Waukegan, upside down in a garbage can that had been doused with bleach. She had been reported her missing about a month earlier.
In the absence of significant trauma and the presence of potentially lethal drugs in Megan’s body, the Lake County Coroner’s Office could not determine a cause of death.
Fentanyl, cocaine metabolite and morphine were identified in her liver tissue, indicating potentially lethal cocaine, fentanyl and probable heroin use, the coroner said.
Mendoza-Gonzalez was arrested the day Megan Bos’ body was discovered, after police said he told investigators she had visited him home Feb. 19 and apparently overdosed in his basement. He told investigators he was afraid of getting into trouble, so he kept her body in his basement for a few days before moving it to the garbage container, according to police.
Complying with the SAFE-T Act, a judge granted Mendoza-Gonzalez pretrial release after his initial arrest. But in July 2025, he was arrested by federal agents, just days after Jennifer Bos met with President Donald Trump at the White House for the signing ceremony of the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act.
Mendoza-Gonzalez later sought to self-deport, but the Lake County state’s attorney’s office upgraded the charges against him and a judge ordered him held in the county jail pending trial.
“(He) committed an incredibly serious and premeditated crime: the continued concealment of the remains of someone who died suddenly,” State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said. “That crime caused immeasurable pain to the family, and we intend to try (him) for his state crime and ask that he be punished for his state crime — regardless of his citizenship or the federal government’s interest in what country he was born in.”
At the time, Bos said she wanted to hug the judge and the ICE agents.
“If he wasn't detained today, he would have gone back to Indiana with ICE, and they would have immediately proceeded with the deportation proceedings, and he would have been sent back to Mexico as soon as possible,” she said.
Today, Jennifer Bos consoles herself with memories of her daughter, who also lived in Antioch.
She remembers how Megan took nursing classes in high school and enjoyed helping elderly patients. She later favored service jobs, including waitressing, that put her contact with people, Jennifer Bos said.
She has tried to be honest about her daughter’s addiction and recovery efforts. After struggling with addiction and depression for years, Megan went into rehab in 2019, about six months after her daughter was born, Jennifer Bos said.
She had been sober since and attending meetings regularly when her beloved younger brother, Bryan, died in August 2020 from an epileptic seizure.
“They were very close, and she just spiraled out of control,” Jennifer Bos said.
Shortly before her death, Megan, the mother of two children, had been planning to enter a sober living facility when she relapsed.
Jennifer Bos last spoke with her daughter on Feb. 17, 2025. After attempts to contact her on Facebook, Jennifer reached out to friends, who said they also had been trying to contact her. Finally, Megan was reported missing March 9, 2025.
Jennifer said she still has plenty of questions about what happened to her daughter. But she’s also focused on her advocacy.
Those efforts will take her to Dallas this week for the Republican midterm convention, which she sees as an opportunity for more networking and to continue her efforts.
“I want to see people accountable. I want to see our laws upheld,” she said. “We don’t necessarily need tighter immigration laws. We just need them to be followed.”
szalusky@dailyherald.com