Rachel Morin killing intensifies immigration debate among Maryland federal lawmakers

In the aftermath of Rachel Morin’s killing, Maryland congressional lawmakers called America’s immigration system “broken,” but Republicans blamed President Joe Biden while Democrats said the GOP squandered an opportunity to address serious border concerns.

In Maryland and beyond, the murder of Morin, a Bel Air mother, intensified a hot-button political issue in an election year.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Morin’s death on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, where her body was discovered in August. Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler has said Martinez-Hernandez, a native of El Salvador, entered the United States unlawfully last year.

Gahler, a Republican, said Saturday: “To 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and to every member of both chambers of Congress: We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border here in Harford County and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policy.”

Democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation countered this week that it was Republicans who rejected a bipartisan border security deal in February— and again in May — after it was opposed by former President Donald Trump, this year’s presumed Republican presidential nominee. The legislation, shelved by the GOP on a procedural vote, was intended to reduce border crossings. After the measure failed, Biden, a Democrat, signed an executive order earlier this month to stem the flow of asylum seekers.

“My heart breaks for the Morin family,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun. “The Morin family deserves more than words — they deserve action. There’s no doubt our immigration system is broken. That’s why I voted last month to move onto bipartisan legislation that would allow us to begin addressing our border security and comprehensive immigration reforms, but Republicans slammed the door shut.”

Maryland’s other senator, Democrat Ben Cardin, has also called the immigration system “broken.” Asked for comment this week, his spokesperson referenced a June 4 statement in which Cardin said “Congress needs to act” and lamented that Republicans had twice blocked legislation “to make reforms and inject resources into a system bursting at the seams.”

Trump counseled Republicans against supporting the legislation, saying it was too weak. Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford had negotiated the deal with Democrats.

“It’s dismaying that our GOP Colleagues abandoned potentially historic and thoroughly bipartisan border security legislation because ex-President Trump wants a border crisis, not a border solution,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat, told The Sun via email. “Improving border security and overhauling our ailing immigration system are long overdue policy imperatives.”

On “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore called it “unbelievably frustrating” that a coalition of Democrats and Republicans could not approve a border bill because Trump “said this was not advantageous politically.”

Trump has made the border one of his signature issues. The former president’s campaign referenced Morin’s killing in a statement about immigration Tuesday, saying Biden “allowed” the alleged killer to enter the United States, where the suspect “murdered a mother of five while she was on a run in Maryland.”

“The Biden Administration owes justice to Rachel Morin’s family and to so many families across our country for allowing violent migrant crime to run rampant in our communities,” said U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, a Trump backer, in a statement to The Sun Monday. Harris represents the 1st Congressional District of Harford County, the Eastern Shore and part of Baltimore County.

The Trump campaign’s statement on Tuesday was targeted at a just-announced White House immigrant program that the campaign called a “mass amnesty plan” that would lead to increased migrant crime.

The new program, announced Tuesday, provides non-citizen spouses who are married to American citizens an opportunity for U.S. residency and citizenship.

It will affect an estimated 500,000 spouses of American citizens “who have been here in the country for a decade or more and their children,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a news release Tuesday. “They deserve our protection, and should be allowed to remain with their families and contribute to our communities while they apply for a green card.”

But Trump said Biden proposed the plan because he knows those affected “will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party” and that it would “undoubtedly lead to a greater surge in migrant crime.”