MILWAUKEE - The brother of a Maryland woman whose 2023 killing has fanned the flames of immigration policy debate addressed a packed stadium of delegates Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous,” said Michael Morin, 40, of Churchville, Maryland, to applause. ”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, 2023, after going for a jog on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, which her brother said was one of the family’s favorite places. Her body was found nearby the following day.

“This beautiful trail was to us a safe place where we pushed our babies in strollers, where we walked together as a family, where my wife and I got married,” he said.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Patty Morin said this photo is how her family remembers her daughter, whose body was found on a hiking trail in Harford County. (Kylie Cooper/The Baltimore Banner)

After 10 months of investigation, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler announced in a June 15 press conference the arrest of Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a 23-year-old citizen of El Salvador, for Rachel Morin’s death.

According to Gahler, the suspect illegally entered the country in February 2023 after allegedly killing a woman in his home country. Martinez-Hernandez is also accused of a home invasion and assault in Los Angeles in March of last year.

Video and DNA evidence from the California crime helped law enforcement connect Morin’s slaying to Martinez-Hernandez. Authorities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, arrested Martinez-Hernandez and extradited him to Maryland.

Former President Donald Trump invited several members of Rachel Morin’s family to join him at the Republican National Convention this week. Michael Morin wore all black as he delivered an approximately four-minute speech in which he described his sister as a “joyful, accomplished athlete” and mother.

Cameras panned to show Trump sitting still as he listened to the speech through bandaged ear, a reminder of the assassination attempt just two days prior.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Michael Morin referred to Martinez-Hernandez as a “monster” and said his sister’s killing was among the most brutal and violent offenses in Harford County’s history. The brother spoke critically of the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies and said they have not reached out to Morin’s family, a detail that elicited boos from the crowd.

“He [Trump] wanted to meet with us,” Michael Morin said. “He cared. That is leadership and we need real leadership back in the White House.”

Maryland State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, a Baltimore County Republican, is one of 24 convention delegates in Milwaukee. Salling told Capital News Service on July 11: “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.”

“We had it here in Maryland, as you know, in Harford County,” Salling said, referring to Morin’s death. “I think that’s a major issue of security, of public safety.”

Despite high profile cases like Morin’s, the popular conservative theory that immigrants disproportionately commit violent crime is not based on statistical evidence.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

A 2020 white paper by the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, investigated whether immigrants in Texas commit more or fewer violent crimes than U.S. citizens.

The paper concludes: “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 CATO researchers note that Texas is the only state to record criminal arrests and convictions by immigration status.

Despite the lack of data to support a larger trend, conservative officials and pundits point to Morin’s case and others — like the February murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Reilly — to underscore what they call “Biden’s Border.”

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

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Fox News host Sean Hannity invited Rachel’s mother Patricia Morin to his show following Martinez-Hernandez’s arrest.

“It’s like we’ve opened our doors and you let a stranger into your house,” Patricia told Hannity of U.S. border security. “We’re not protecting ourselves; we’re not protecting our families.”

Biden has not reached out to the family, according to Randolph Rice, their attorney.

Trump called the Morin family in June to express his condolences and later invited Patricia, Rachel’s sister Rebekah and Rice to lunch June 30 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.”

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Michael Morin said to the crowded convention floor that his Christian faith has helped him get through the unthinkable loss and that he prays for his sister’s killer, too.

“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,” he concluded.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, both reached out to the Morin family last month to offer condolences for Rachel’s death.

On June 24, fourteen Republican state delegates signed a letter to Moore urging him to increase coordination between local law enforcement and ICE. The letter, which Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican from Baltimore County, posted on Facebook, opened with Morin’s murder.

Law enforcement agents escort 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez Hernadez from an airplane at Martin State Airport after his extradition from Oklahoma on June 20, 2024. Hernandez is charged with raping and killing Rachel Morin of Harford County. (Kylie Cooper/The Baltimore Banner)

“The tragic and unnecessary death of Rachel Morin has profoundly impacted our community,” the letter reads. “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 as he awaits trial, which is scheduled for October.

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

Baltimore Banner reporter Lillian Reed contributed to this story.