The mom who’ll be President Trump’s guest at his State of the Union Address lost her daughter after the teen was “marked for death” by MS-13 gangsters on Long Island.
And now, Evelyn Rodriguez is fighting to turn the tables on the killers of 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas.
Cuevas and her best pal, Nisa Mickens, 15, were strolling down a tree-lined street in Brentwood on Sept. 13, 2016, when they were beaten to death by MS-13 thugs armed with baseball bats and a machete.
Since then, Rodriguez has become a fierce advocate, urging schools to do more to combat gang-related violence, a pervasive problem on Long Island, where MS-13 has been responsible for at least 25 murders since 2016.
Rodriguez will be placed in the national spotlight for her fight Tuesday night when she attends the president’s speech in the Capitol’s House of Representatives chamber.
Her husband, Freddy Cuevas, was also invited, along with Nisa Mickens’ parents, Elizabeth Alvarado and Robert Mickens.
“Nisa and Kayla had been close friends since elementary school, but in September 2016, the two girls were chased down and brutally murdered,” reads a press release announcing Trump’s special guests.
“Their deaths were among a string of . . . Long Island slayings that have been attributed to Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.”
Last March, six MS-13 members were charged with the teens’ murders, including two leaders of the “Sailors” clique who allegedly authorized the slayings.
Cuevas had been involved in “a series of disputes” with MS-13 gang members in the months before her murder, federal prosecutors said.
The dispute escalated a week before her killing, when Cuevas and several friends got into an argument with MS-13 members at her school.
“After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas,” the federal complaint states.
Last month, Rodriguez filed a $110 million lawsuit against the Brentwood School District, arguing that officials ignored repeated complaints that MS-13 members were threatening her daughter.
The suit says Cuevas was bullied by gang members for years — and had been “marked for death” by a student on Sept. 8, 2016. One gangster “made a throat-slicing gesture towards [her],” the papers state.
Days later, Cuevas and her best friend were found dead.