As America regains its strength， this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance.
Struggling communities， especially immigrant communities， will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American workers and American families.
For decades， open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. They have allowed millions of low－wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically， they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.
Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers：Evelyn Rodriguez， Freddy Cuevas， Elizabeth Alvarado， and Robert Mickens. Their two teenage daughters －－ Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens －－ were close friends on Long Island. But in September 2016， on the eve of Nisa＇s 16th Birthday， neither of them came home. These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage gang MS－13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa＇s murders. Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors － and wound up in Kayla and Nisa＇s high school.
Evelyn， Elizabeth， Freddy， and Robert：Tonight， everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow， but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain.
Tonight， I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS－13， and other criminals， to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws， and support our ICE and Border Patrol Agents， so that this cannot ever happen again.
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