Agnes Gibboney's parents escaped communist Hungary in 1956. She waited thirteen years in Brazil for the paperwork to immigrate to the United States legally and became a citizen in 1983, the first country she had ever belonged to. Then a gang member who was in the country illegally, who had been deported once and come back, who had been arrested again and released on probation by a judge, fired at her son Ronald as he stood in a driveway dropping off fruit for his two children. Ronald was 29. He died in surgery three and a half hours later.
In this Surviving Communism series installment, Jenny Beth Martin sits down with Gibboney for the conversation they set aside in her first interview: what happened to Ronald, how she learned eight years later that the man who killed him was an illegal alien with an ICE detainer, the judge who pleaded three times with the defendant to take a plea bargain while she was never allowed a victim impact statement, the grief group that told her not to say the word murdered, and the work she does now as founder of Angel Families of America. Then the questions of the moment: why a secure border matters, what she says to people who want to abolish ICE, and her answer on amnesty, in Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English.
Guest: Agnes Gibboney, founder of Angel Families of America, Hungarian-born legal immigrant and naturalized United States citizen, angel mom whose son Ronald was killed by an illegal alien gang member who had been deported before, and 2020 candidate for Congress.
Today's topics:
• Born in Budapest in 1954; her parents escaped after the 1956 revolution, then a refugee camp, thirteen years in Brazil, and legal immigration to the United States in 1970
• Naturalized on June 30, 1983, with a perfect score on the test and a $50 fee: "for the first time, I belonged somewhere," because Hungary had taken her citizenship away
• Ronald, 29, a father of two, standing in a driveway with a watermelon for his kids when a gang member came out of the dark and fired
• "Your son is behind the drapes": identifying him through a window because he was now part of a homicide investigation, never allowed to hold his hand
• The man who fired had been deported, came back, was arrested for injuring his girlfriend, and was released on probation by a judge before he reached that driveway
• A judge pleaded three times with the defendant to take a plea bargain, in front of the mother, and the jury never got the case
• She was never allowed to give a victim impact statement; a parole file claims she did, and the office hung up when she asked for a copy
• Eight years after the shooting, a state corrections clerk mentioned the man's ICE detainer and alien number; that is how she learned he was in the country illegally
• The grief group that told her "we don't use that word" when she said her son was murdered, and why Jenny Beth's father, a minister, says you have to say the word
• Angel Families of America: the support group she ended up running, the families she still answers calls from, and the California mother whose daughter's killer is back in court with three life sentences
• President Trump, February 22 as a national day of remembrance for angel families, and what he says to her about Ronald every time they meet
• "I love ice in my water, but I love ICE on the streets better": what she told ICE headquarters, and what she says to the abolish-ICE crowd
• No amnesty, in Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English: why she says the Reagan amnesty changed nothing and the H-2B visa already exists for people who want to work
• Why she says voting for candidates who will secure the border is "absolutely essential," and the other Hungarian in this series who walked out across the Austrian border three weeks after her family tried
The Jenny Beth Show airs live Monday through Friday at 1:00 PM ET. Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. Subscribe for daily analysis of politics, policy, and the fight for constitutionally limited government. teapartypatriots.org
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