They did it because they wanted to trot out the mother of a victim to endorse their unlawful deportations and didn’t want to ruin the PR stunt by risking someone asking questions and injecting a little reality into the event.

Friendly media will run with a story about an emotional plea from a grieving mother that makes it sound like the only thing standing between mass rape and murder is the Trump administration deporting illegals before they get a chance to strike. The rest of the media will describe the event and basically let the same message get through with a footnote about the lack of questions and maybe a quote from someone on the other side for balance. Any outlet that would lead with the refusal to answer questions is one that was going to be critical anyway. There’s really no downside for them.