Angel mom Agnes Gibboney came to America the legal way, and the man who took her son's life had already been deported once before he reached the driveway where Ronald was standing. In this Surviving Communism installment, Jenny Beth Martin sits down with Gibboney for the conversation they set aside in their first interview: what the government did, and failed to do, before and after her 29-year-old son was shot while dropping off a watermelon for his two children. The gunman was a gang member who had been deported, came back, was arrested for hurting his girlfriend, and was released on probation by a judge. For eight years nobody told Agnes he was in the country illegally; a state corrections clerk let it slip. A judge pleaded three times with the defendant to take a plea bargain while the mother sat in the courtroom, she was never allowed a victim impact statement, and a grief group told her not to say the word "murdered." Then the questions of the moment: why a secure border is essential, what she says to people who want to abolish ICE, and her answer on amnesty in Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Agnes Gibboney was born in Budapest in 1954, waited thirteen years in Brazil after her parents fled communist Hungary, immigrated legally in 1970, became a United States citizen in 1983, and founded Angel Families of America. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Guest: Agnes Gibboney is the founder of Angel Families of America and a Hungarian-born legal immigrant. Born in Budapest in 1954, less than a decade after the communists took Hungary, she was baptized in secret, carried out of the country after the 1956 revolution, raised in a refugee camp and then in Brazil for thirteen years, and admitted to the United States as a permanent resident in November 1970 after background checks in two countries. She was naturalized on June 30, 1983, the first country she had ever belonged to, because Hungary had taken her family's citizenship away. Twenty-four years ago her son Ronald, 29, a father of two, was shot and killed in a California driveway by a gang member who was in the country illegally and had been deported before. She has run support groups for the families of murder victims ever since, and she ran for Congress in 2020.
Host: Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. This is the second conversation with Agnes Gibboney in the Surviving Communism series; the first, on her family's escape from communist Hungary, aired September 29.
Key topics:
• Baptized in secret in communist Hungary; a refugee camp, thirteen years in Brazil, and legal immigration in 1970
• Naturalized June 30, 1983, with a perfect score on the test: "for the first time, I belonged somewhere"
• Ronald, 29, a father of two, standing in a driveway with a watermelon for his kids when a gang member fired
• "Your son is behind the drapes": identifying him through a window, never allowed to hold his hand
• The gunman had been deported, came back, was arrested for hurting his girlfriend, and was released on probation
• A judge pleaded three times with the defendant to take a plea bargain, in front of the mother
• She was never allowed a victim impact statement; a parole file claims she gave one, and the office hung up
• Eight years after the shooting, a corrections clerk mentioned an ICE detainer and an alien number
• The grief group that said "we don't use that word," and why Jenny Beth's father, a minister, says you must
• Angel Families of America, the families she still answers calls from, and three life sentences undone by elderly parole
• President Trump and February 22 as a National Day of Remembrance of Angel Families
• "I love ice in my water, but I love ICE on the streets better": her answer to abolish ICE
• No amnesty, in four languages: the Reagan amnesty changed nothing, and the work visa already exists
• Why voting for candidates who will secure the border is "absolutely essential"
Timestamps:
00:00 — Born into communist Hungary in 1954: a secret baptism and a family that fled
01:49 — A refugee camp, thirteen years in Brazil, and legal immigration in November 1970
03:51 — Naturalized on June 30, 1983: "for the first time, I belonged somewhere"
06:09 — Ronald, 29, a father of two, in a driveway with a watermelon for his kids
07:10 — The park ranger at the campsite, the drive home, and "Ronald didn't make it"
11:31 — "Your son is behind the drapes": the window, the morgue, and the funeral
16:05 — Deported once, came back, arrested for hurting his girlfriend, released on probation
19:03 — How did he get back in? Deported at Otay Mesa, back through an open border
20:27 — Laken Riley, Kate Steinle, and the lawlessness that breeds more lawlessness
24:00 — A judge pleads three times with the defendant to take a plea bargain
25:38 — No victim impact statement, and a parole file that says she gave one
27:49 — She runs a support group for the families of murder victims
28:38 — The grief group that said "we don't use that word"
30:52 — Jenny Beth's father, a minister: you have to say the word
33:18 — Eight years later, a corrections clerk mentions an ICE detainer
36:03 — "We got him": the arrest, the sentence, and the pain that never goes away
37:14 — Bonnie Drexel's daughter: three life sentences and California's elderly parole
39:45 — Angel Families of America: she answers every call
41:11 — President Trump and February 22, National Day of Remembrance of Angel Families
43:28 — Why a secure border is essential: follow the law, and no public assistance
46:04 — Abolish ICE? "I love ice in my water, but I love ICE on the streets better"
48:32 — "They are not immigrants": undocumented, Dreamers, and the words that brainwash
50:23 — Is voting for border security essential? "Absolutely"
51:58 — The Kaiser emergency room: paying for insurance and waiting behind public assistance
53:51 — Amnesty: no in Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English
56:20 — Closing: share the series, vote for liberty, and get out the vote
Links mentioned:
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org
iwillsaveamerica.com