Rachel Morin's Mother at the White House Podium: 'Why Are We Not Protecting the American Citizens?' (April 16, 2025)

The surprise guest at the White House briefing was a grieving mother. Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was murdered on a Maryland trail in 2023, took the podium and asked a question for the country. “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?” she said on April 16, 2025, according to the transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

“Why are we not protecting the American citizens? It’s just common sense why are we not protecting our children?” Morin said [1].

The video above shows Morin at the White House on April 16, 2025. Quotes are from the American Presidency Project and WBFF [1][2][3][4].

”There Is No Maryland Father”

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt opened with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who had headed to El Salvador that morning to press for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “The Democrats and the media in this room have continually and wrongly labeled Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a Maryland father. There is no Maryland father,” she said [1].

“And just this morning, it was revealed through Maryland court documents that Abrego Garcia’s wife petitioned for an order of protection against him for two instances of domestic violence in May of 2021,” Leavitt said [1].

“It’s appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” she said. She then introduced the woman beside her, “whose beautiful daughter, Rachel, was brutally maimed and murdered at the hands of an illegal alien.” [1]

“Patty no longer has her daughter because of the failed Democrat Party’s open border,” Leavitt said [1].

“Patty should not have to be here today, but she is. And we are grateful, and we are honored for her willingness and her request to share her powerful story with the world,” she said [1].

”She Was Not Planning on Dying”

“You know that Rachel is a 37-year-old mother. She has five children. We’ve walked the trail for the last 25 years that we’ve lived in Maryland. It’s a safe place for our family,” Morin said [1].

“When she went on that trail that day, she was not planning on dying. She wasn’t planning on walking to her death. She was planning on going to the grocery store with her girls afterwards,” she said [1].

“I sat for the last two weeks in her trial, and we saw layer upon layer upon layer of evidence against the accused, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador,” Morin said [1].

She walked the room through what the trial showed. Her daughter’s killer, she said, took Rachel “so violently and so gruesomely and so graphically that they sealed the pictures.” [1]

“There was no remorse on his face at all,” Morin said. “These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country.” [1]

“Rips Out Your Heart”

“If you’re a mother here in the room, can you imagine standing there alive, you’re alive, and someone comes and puts their hands into your chest and rips out your heart? That’s what it feels like,” Morin said [1].

She had a message for Van Hollen. “And to have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother, and now a grandbaby without a grandmother, so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen,” she said. “Why does that person have more right than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren?” [1]

“And I think the country hears you loud and clear,” Leavitt told her [1].

”Please Tell the Truth”

Leavitt took no questions. Morin had spoken for roughly 12 minutes, according to the White House pool report [2].

As she left, Morin spoke to the reporters. “Please tell the truth. Exactly. Tell the truth,” she said. “It’s more than just politics or votes or just anything. It’s about national security. Protecting Americans. Protecting our children.” [1]

“An Angel Mom”

That evening, at the White House Easter prayer service and dinner, Trump singled her out. “‘Angel mom’ Patty Morin, who’s been through hell. Where is Patty? Patty—stand up, Patty, please. Lost her incredible daughter. And her daughter is looking down on Patty today,” he said [3].

“This was some day for you, and we appreciate it, Patty. And we’re all with you a hundred percent. And you are indeed an angel mom,” Trump said [3].

By the Numbers

37: Rachel Morin’s age, per her mother [1].
5: her children, per her mother [1].
2 weeks: the trial her mother sat through, per Morin [1].
About 12 minutes: how long Morin spoke, per the pool report [2].

What Happened Next

Her killer got the maximum. On Aug. 11, 2025, in Harford County, Md., Victor Martinez-Hernandez was sentenced for Rachel Morin’s murder. “The judge sentenced him to the maximum sentence, life without the possibility of parole, another life sentence, and an additional 40 years in prison,” WBFF reported [4].

Patty Morin spoke in court. Standing feet from him, she asked: “What person could commit such horrific crimes?” [4]

For Leavitt on the guilty verdict and on Harvard the day before, see HYGO News’ page on April 15, 2025. For Trump and Bukele on Abrego Garcia, see the page on April 14, 2025.