By Brooklynn Wong
It has been 17 years since Agnes Gibboney’s son was murdered in Southern California, but his death, and her passion, are still having an impact.
“I’m not gonna stop fighting, ever,” Gibboney told those gathered on a rainy evening last week at the Phoenix Club, where the Anaheim Republican Assembly’s monthly meeting was being held.
In 2002, Gibboney’s son, Ronald da Silva, was standing in a driveway in El Monte talking to a friend, when Luis Gonzalez, a gang member, drove by and shot at the men. According to some reports, Gonzalez intended to shoot the man da Silva was talking to, but the bullet struck da Silva instead.
He died in surgery hours later.
Gibboney had been away on a Girl Scout camping trip with her daughters, and was notified of what had happened when a park ranger came and woke her up, telling her there was an emergency phone call waiting for her.
Adding to the family’s heartbreak was the fact that in the aftermath, it was determined that the suspect was an undocumented immigrant. Luis Gonzalez had previously been deported from the country, and had come back illegally.
Gibboney quickly took action. She says she personally found two witnesses, which led to crucial information. It was found that Gonzalez had fled back to Mexico after the murder. He came back to the United States, and has been imprisoned ever since. However, Gibboney says he is due to be released next year.
But Gibboney does not want any family, any mother, to ever have to experience what she has, so she has channeled the grief of mourning her firstborn and only son into action. She has thrown her support behind immigration reform, and has been invited on multiple occasions to the White House with other “angel families”—those who have had family members killed by undocumented immigrants.
Gibboney herself, along with her family, escaped Hungary in 1957 and first found themselves in Brazil, before ultimately making it to the US in 1970.
She said in her family’s effort to get here, they endured the lengthy and trying process, and sold almost all of their possessions to pay for the necessary exams.
She has met with President Trump and other politicians as recently as a few weeks ago, and is often asked to write columns and make public appearances to use her story to demonstrate the need for going through proper immigration protocols.
“You put a heartbroken mother out there fighting for her child,” she said, and things will happen.
