Trump Addresses Long Island Parents Of MS-13 Victims

President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on deadly MS-13 during his first State of the Union address Tuesday night at the U.S. Capitol, bringing the pain of the devastation close to home when he introduced the parents of two Brentwood teen girls murdered in a horrific act of MS-13 gang violence.

"For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. They've allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives," Trump said.

He introduced "two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens," whose girls, Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, were close friends on Long Island, Trump said.

"But in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa's 16th Birthday — such a happy time it should have been — neither of them came home," he said. "These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage MS-13 gang have been charged with Kayla and Nisa's murders."

According to Trump, many of the gang members "took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as illegal, unaccompanied alien minors, and wound up in Kayla and Nisa's high school."

He added: "Evelyn, Elizabeth, Freddy, and Robert: Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you. . . I want you to know that 320 million hearts are right now breaking for you. We love you."

To fight back against the wave of brutal gang violence, Trump called on Congress to close the "deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminal gangs, to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws and support our ICE and Border Patrol agents — these are great people; these are great, great people — that work so hard in the midst of such danger so that this can never happen again," he said.

After the speech, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, told MSNBC that Trump was wrong to link MS-13 with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“We’re not supposed to convince the American public of policy because we make them afraid," Harris said. "And that’s what this president apparently thinks he needs to do and it’s irresponsible."

Trump also introduced Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Celestino Martinez, or "CJ," who served 15 years in the Air Force before becoming an ICE agent and spending the past 15 years fighting gang violence and getting criminals off of the streets.

"At one point, MS-13 leaders ordered CJ's murder. And they wanted it to happen quickly. But he did not cave to threats or to fear. Last May, he commanded an operation to track down gang members on Long Island. His team has arrested nearly 400, including more than 220 MS-13 gang members," Trump said.

He vowed to send "reinforcements . . . and we're going to send them to you quickly. It's what you need."

In July, Trump spoke in Brentwood about MS-13. In that speech, he promised to rid the gang-ravaged communities of Long Island of the "animals" on their streets.

MS-13, Trump said, are brutally violent. "They don't like shooting people because it's too quick, it's too fast," he said. Instead, they "knife them, cut them, let them die slowly because it's more painful. These guys are animals."

Lax border control, "weak political leadership" and police who were unable to do their jobs because of a "pathetic mayor" have sent drugs and violence pouring over the border, Trump said. "From now on, we're going to enforce our laws, protect our borders and support our police like our police have never been supported before."

MS-13 coverage on Patch:

• Trump On Long Island Brings Out Supporters, Protesters Alike [Photos, Video]
• Trump Endorses Police Brutality During MS-13 Talk On Long Island
• MS-13: An Inside Look At The Brutal Gang And Its Insidious Spread On Long Island
• Crackdown Nets 39 MS-13 Arrests In 30 Days
• 3 MS-13 Gang Members Reportedly Charged In Brutal Quadruple Homicide In Central Islip
• Feds ID Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Charged In Dozen Long Island Murders
• Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa Offers Plan To Rein In MS-13
• Watch Suffolk Police Commissioner Tim Sini Testifying Before Congress On Deadly MS-13 Gang

Photo- From top left, Robert Mickens, Elizabeth Alvarado, Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, parents of two Long Island teenagers who were believed to have been killed by MS-13 gang members, during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)