The White House press room fell silent Wednesday as Patty Morin, mother of murdered Maryland woman Rachel Morin, delivered a searing rebuke of her home state senator, Chris Van Hollen. Fighting back tears, she condemned his decision to travel to El Salvador in defense of a deported alleged MS-13 gang member — while, she said, barely acknowledging her daughter’s brutal death.
Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was murdered in 2023 by 24-year-old Salvadoran national Victor Martinez-Hernandez, who was convicted on Monday. Her mother described in graphic detail the crime that devastated her family, then turned her anger toward Van Hollen:
“A senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge my daughter … chose to use my tax money to fly to El Salvador to bring back a person who isn’t even an American citizen.”
Van Hollen has pressed for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 member deported last month, insisting that El Salvador is holding him without evidence. But the Trump administration countered Wednesday, releasing case files linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 and reminding the public that he had been ordered deported by a federal judge.
