MS-13 is ‘the demon itself’, victim’s mother says
Evelyn Rodriguez's 16-year-old daughter Kayla was killed for standing up to members of MS-13.
President Trump incited controversy this week when he reportedly referred to members of the international gang MS-13 as “animals”, but according to Evelyn Rodriguez, the mother of a 16-year-old girl who was brutally killed by the gang, that word is “being kind.”
“The way my daughter was murdered was indescribable,” she said during an interview with FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on Saturday. “To imagine what they did to her -- there’s no words that can even [describe] it.”
Although critics slammed the president for using racially-charged language about undocumented immigrants, the president defended his use of the word “animals” and said he was merely describing MS-13 members during a roundtable at the White House last week..
"You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are,” he said at the time. “These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.”
Rodriguez’s daughter, Kayla Cuevas, was beaten to death by MS-13 gang members on Long Island in 2016. She’d been attacked, spit on, pushed and harassed by the gang for years prior to her death, her parents said.
Since then, Rodriguez has met with the school district officials -- who she blames for not doing more to stop gang recruitment and harassment -- and the president. She credits him with acknowledging the problem plaguing Long Island, and the one who’s trying to listen and open up the doors.
“[MS-13 is] the demon itself,” Rodriguez said. “When you look at these individuals, it’s just seeing darkness. There’s nothing there.”
Four MS-13 members were charged in the deaths of Cuevas and her friend, Nisa Mickens. Three of those four were undocumented immigrants.