Mother Who Lost Son to MS-13 Denounces Trump’s Immigration Policies

FEATURING REBEKAH SPICUGLIA – Donald Trump has been obsessed with the Salvadoran-American gang MS-13. The gang has many regional groups, with some members sporting face tattoos, and a reputation for engaging in brutal and violent murders. Even before he became President, Trump gleefully equated all immigrants with the danger and violence of MS-13. During his first State of the Union address in January 2018 the majority of his immigration-related words centered on MS-13. He even trotted out parents whose children were murdered by the gang.

Today we’ll speak with a mother whose beloved son was also murdered in a vicious incident linked to MS-13 but who takes a very different view on immigrant rights than the President. Oscar Daniel Joaquin was only 17 years old and living with his father in Santa Maria, California near Santa Barbara when he was brutally killed on July 28, 2015.

His mother Rebekah Spicuglia, who has written about being a “non-custodial” mother, has begun speaking out about her son and what happened to him. Her moving piece just published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution is called Life Without Oscar.

For more information visit about Oscar’s life and case www.forevermissed.com/oscarjoaquin/, and read Rebekah Spicuglia’s article ‘Life Without Oscar’ in the Atlanta Journal Constitution HERE.

Rebekah Spicuglia, writer who lost her son Oscar Daniel Joaquin in 2015. For 15 years, she has worked in film, public relations and strategic communications for nonprofit social change organizations on a wide range of issues that impact people of color, women and LGBTQ communities. Rebekah is now program manager for Family Story.