FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 President Donald Trump brought two Southwest Florida murder cases into the political spotlight during his appearance at Alico Arena.<\/p>\n
Trump referenced the killings of Julia Curvo and Nilufa Easmin, two women whose deaths have left families grieving. His remarks also tied the cases to his immigration agenda.<\/p>\n
Rolbert Joachin is a man accused of two Lee County murder cases. But behind the politics are families whose lives have been forever changed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Left: Nilufa Easmin, Right: Julia Curvo<\/p>\n
Nine months ago, 28-year-old Julia Curvo was murdered. Her grandmother Sandra Stephens says the pain hasn’t faded.<\/p>\n
“She was a human being and didn’t deserve what happen to her,” Stephens said.<\/p>\n
While the president’s remarks brought the case back into the national conversation, Stephens says what matters most is that people remember the woman behind the headlines.<\/p>\n
“People tend to forget and so it gets her name back out there and Trump mentioning the situation gets it back out there in the world,” Stephens said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stephens says she continues to attend court proceedings as the case moves through the justice system. Julia’s father shared a statement with WINK News, remembering her as a talented young woman who loved to sing, go to the beach and watch the sunset.<\/p>\n
He says her 5-year-old sister still misses her.<\/p>\n
Nilufa Easmin was killed six months ago. In a statement to WINK News, her family said it was emotional to know her story was still being discussed while they continue to live with her absence.<\/p>\n
The family says no amount of attention can bring her back.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The president’s remarks are also raising concerns among members of Southwest Florida’s Haitian community. Beatrice Jacquet-Castor, president of the Haitian American Community Coalition of Southwest Florida, says her community is also grieving while worrying about being judged by the actions of one person.<\/p>\n
“As an immigrant here, we don’t belong. And for him to use that in his open rally today, it’s truly sad. It’s showing us where America is at. We have taken five steps back just because one person action that happens to be an immigrant does not justify each and every one of us in that community,” Jacquet-Castor said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These are two families still dealing with the loss of their loved ones and the long wait for justice. The families feel the remarks brought new attention to their cases, while the Haitian community strongly feels one person’s actions do not justify judging an entire community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 President Donald Trump brought two Southwest Florida murder cases into the political spotlight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[105233,209,211,210,409,28,897,99133,356,807,1521,38979],"class_list":["post-436833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-alico-arena","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-julia-curvo","tag-lee-county","tag-south-florida","tag-southwest-florida","tag-wink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}