Mother of Woman Killed by Illegal Immigrant Speaks at White House Press Briefing

The Trump administration invited the mother of a Maryland woman killed by an illegal immigrant to address reporters during an April 16 press briefing at the White House.

Patty Morin’s daughter, Rachel Morin, was killed in 2023 by Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 24, a Salvadoran man who had entered the country illegally in 2023, authorities said.

The mother of the slain woman called for immediate action to protect communities across the nation.

“We are American citizens. Why should we allow people like this, violent criminals that have no conscience at all, to murder our mothers, our sisters, our daughters?” Morin said.

“This is about protecting our children.”

On Monday, Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense, and kidnapping.

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Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, went missing on a popular hiking trail in Bel Air, Maryland, a town northeast of Baltimore, in August 2023, before police ultimately found her body in a wooded area near the trail.

During the press briefing on Wednesday, Patty Morin said their family had walked the same trail for 25 years.

“It’s a safe place for our family,” she said. “It’s where we go to get a little bit of New England.”

The heartbroken mother shared graphic details about her daughter’s murder and the violent attack that preceded it.

“There wasn’t one inch of her body that didn’t have some kind of injury,” Morin said.

She then suggested that it’s common sense to deport illegal immigrants.

“These are the kind of criminals that we need to remove from our country,” the mother said.

“It’s not that it’s political … we have to look at it as we are American citizens, we need to protect our families, our borders, our children.”

The case became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, and the president began his second term in office with an aggressive approach to deporting violent criminals.

His administration has repeatedly vowed to target the “worst of the worst” for immediate deportation.

Some lawmakers critical of the mass deportations underway are raising concerns about due process, among other issues.

White House officials and Morin chastised Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for visiting El Salvador on Wednesday to request a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29. The Salvadoran national, who entered the United States illegally, was deported in March and is now the subject of a series of legal battles.

“Why does that person have more right than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren?” Morin said. “I don’t understand this.”

Van Hollen demanded his release, arguing that El Salvador had not given him evidence that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, or that the Salvadoran national had committed a crime befitting detention in the Central American nation’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum security prison.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt questioned Van Hollen for “potentially using taxpayer dollars to demand the release of [a] deported illegal MS-13 gang member terrorist.”