Brother of Bel Air murder victim speaks at the Republican convention

Michael Morin, whose sister Rachel was murdered, speaks to the Republican National Convention Tuesday as half-sister Erin Morin Layman looks on. Photo by Caley Fox Shannon/Capital News Service

By Caley Fox Shannon

MILWAUKEE – The brother of a Maryland woman whose 2023 murder has fanned the flames of immigration policy debate addressed a packed arena Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous,” said Michael Morin, 40, of Churchville. “But there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother. My sister’s death was preventable.”

Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was reported missing Aug. 5 after going for a jog on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air. Her body was found nearby the following day.

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler on June 15 announced the arrest of Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, in connection with Morin’s murder. Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez entered the country illegally in February 2023 after murdering a woman in his native El Salvador. He is also accused of a home invasion and assault in Los Angeles in March 2023.

Video and DNA evidence from the California crime helped connect Morin’s murder to Martinez-Hernandez, who was arrested in Oklahoma and extradited to Maryland.

State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County), a Maryland delegate at the convention, told Capital News Service last week: “We have a problem with crime along the border. We have criminals that are coming to our nation that are just, not committing crimes, that they’re murdering people.”

Despite high-profile cases like Morin’s, claims that immigrants commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes is not based on statistical evidence. A 2020 study of Texas court records by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, investigated whether immigrants there commit more violent crime than U.S. citizens, or fewer.

“Whether one focuses on criminal convictions, arrests, or the number of individuals convicted or arrested, the results are the same: Illegal immigrants have a lower crime rate than native-born Americans in Texas,” the report said.

The researchers noted that Texas is the only state to record criminal arrests and convictions by immigration status.

Despite that, conservative officials and pundits point to Morin’s case and others – like the February murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley – to underscore what they call “Biden’s border crisis.”

At the convention Tuesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mentioned Morin in a list of women allegedly murdered by immigrants, alongside Riley and Kate Steinle of San Francisco.

Fox News host Sean Hannity invited Rachel’s mother Patricia Morin to his show following Martinez-Hernandez’s arrest. She told Hannity, “We’re not protecting ourselves, we’re not protecting our families.”

President Joe Biden has not reached out to the family, according to Randolph Rice, the family’s attorney. He said Trump called the Morin family in June to express his condolences and later invited him, Patricia and Rachel’s sister Rebekah to lunch at his Virginia club.

Rice told CNS that the family supports Trump’s candidacy and “continues to support anyone willing to make changes at the southern border that will prevent another murder like Rachel’s.”

To a crowded convention floor Tuesday night, Michael Morin concluded: “I pray that we hold worldly leaders accountable for safety and justice for innocent people. I pray that we make our country safe and secure in the memory of my sister Rachel, who loved life.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) and former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) both reached out to the Morin family last month to offer condolences for Rachel’s death.

In June, 14 Republican state delegates wrote to Moore urging him to increase coordination between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The tragic and unnecessary death of Rachel Morin has profoundly impacted our community,” said the letter, which Del. Ryan Nawrocki (R-Baltimore County) posted on Facebook. “She was a mother who was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador, a violent criminal with a prior warrant for murder who should have never been in the country in the first place.”

Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree rape, kidnapping and third-degree sex offense. He is being held without bond at the Harford County Detention Center awaiting an October trial.

On July 9, State’s Attorney Alison Healey filed a notice to seek the maximum penalty of life without parole for Martinez-Hernandez.

The post Brother of Bel Air murder victim speaks at the Republican convention appeared first on Maryland Matters .