Parents of girls killed by MS-13 gang members share tears, emotion at State of the Union

A particularly poignant moment emerged during President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday night when the president turned his attention to the brutal violence enacted by the MS-13 gang.

Parents Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado and Robert Mickens, who were invited as guests of the president and first lady, were brought to tears during Trump's speech when he mentioned their daughters, Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, who were killed in September 2016 by members of the MS-13 gang in Long Island, New York.

"Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you," Trump said, speaking to the grieving parents. "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."

See images of the poignant moment:

MS-13 has been a focus of the Trump administration's hardline immigration platform throughout the president's first year in office. MS-13 (or La Mara Salvatrucha), a gang primarily based in Central America, was formed in the 1980s and is today one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States. A reported 6,000 members operate within at least 46 states and the District of Columbia domestically, and more than 30,000 operate internationally. The FBI created a task force on MS-13 in 2004 to "investigate this violent international street gang."

"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," Trump continued in his State of the Union speech. "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."

Trump has used the power of his attorney general, former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, to crack down on sanctuary cities and order a DOJ review of local police reform agreements. Trump's commitment to national border security was also evidenced when internal Department of Homeland Security documents showed the federal agency has identified some 33,000 more detention beds in which to house undocumented immigrants.

RELATED: A look at the MS-13 crime organization