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Trump's Border Visit Features Family Members of Those Murdered by Illegal Immigrants

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 22, 2024 7:30 PM

On Thursday, former and potentially future President Donald Trump traveled to Sierra Vista, Arizona to witness firsthand the crisis at the southern border. Such a visit comes as a manhunt is underway for Ronald Lee Syvrud, who allegedly threatened to kill Trump. Among those accompanying him included family members of Americans who have been tragically murdered. Those charged with such deaths are here illegally.

In June, 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez from El Salvador was arrested for the rape and murder of Rachel Morin, a wife and mother of five children. Her body was found on a hiking trail in Maryland, nowhere near the southern border. Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel, who has spoken with Trump not long after Martinez-Hernandez's arrest, was also present to give remarks on Thursday.

Before Patty spoke, Trump decried her daughter's death as the result of "coldblooded murder." He also noted that the Morin family members present "want to let people understand what's going on here because this can't happen to other parents and sisters and brothers and husbands."

Patty then came to the podium to share details of her daughter's life, including the walking trail where she had been. "The trail that Rachel ran daily was a trial that we, as a family, would walk over the last 25 years that we've lived in Maryland. It's a very safe, small trail, very public, very open; moms with baby carriages go down this trail--it's very safe," Patty shared.

As her voice shook with tears, Patty shared the details of how a detective called her to share the news that 'there's no easy way to tell you this, but we found your daughter's body.'"

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Patty also spoke about why she and others were present, when it comes to "protecting our families," also warning about what will happen if Trump is not elected once more:

And I don't--I really--the reason why I came here today and I accepted the invitation is because I really want our words to be heard, and I really want you to take to heart what we're saying. It's not--we're not here for a political stand, although we are--we're here because we're losing our moms, our daughters, our children to criminals. And that shouldn't happen. We should be taking care of our country, our people. And the only way I believe that's going to happen is if President Trump is reelected as president, and we close up this border, and we put policies back into place that were there before, instead of this open border...thing. We're just gonna--we're gonna end up being a third-world country if it continues this way. 

And I hope--truly I hope--that you would just take my words to heart because it's devastating to lose a child, but even more devastating when you see the pictures, or you see the body, and you really understand what's happened to that person. So, please take to heart--this is a very, very important issue, and it's one that's either going to make or break our country. It's not so much--it's about America, and it's about Americans; it's about us taking and protecting ourselves and looking out for each other. It's about protecting our families. So, thank you.

Morin's brother, Michael, also spoke at the RNC last month about his sister's rape and murder. 

There's also12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was sexually assaulted and murdered. Those charged were here illegally from Venezuela. As Trump pointed out that these men "just walked across [our border] like there was nothing to it," and that "you couldn't do that, five years ago, four years ago," he emphasized that they were "just released into our country."

After Trump pledged to "always hold Jocelyn in our hearts," the preteen's mother, Alexis Nungaray, came up to give her remarks, while Jocelyn's uncle held up a t-shirt with the young girl's name and image. 

With tears, her mother shared the story of how her daughter had been abused and discarded in her final moments, as Alexis also pointed out "it's still very very early and still very very raw and it's still very very surreal."

"They had no reason to do anything that they did to Jocelyn," Alexis added about her daughter. "There was over 300 detention beds that they should have been at because they were detained and they were released when they shouldn't have been released." She also reminded that one of the men charged even had an ankle monitor, though it "didn't stop anything."

"So now I have to go through the rest of my life with my son always asking for his sister and I just really, really, really want everybody to please take into consideration how important border control is, because we're losing very innocent people to heinous crimes that shouldn't be happening in the first place," Alexis shared. 

"So please, please I really hope everybody can hear my pain to just... please, please [Trump] needs to be in office and we need better control, we need to stop this, we need to stop losing our littles, we need to stop losing children, mothers, sisters, because now I get to grieve every single day, every milestone that hits gets harder because she's not there for it," she continued. Jocelyn was going to start the seventh grade this year, her mother pointed out, "and had her whole life ahead of her" which "was viciously taken away by two evil, evil, heinous monsters." 

Alexis closed by thanking people for listening and implored people "to help [Trump] make a change. One could indeed hear the pain in Alexis' voice as she spoke about her daughter. 

Trump also shared the stories of others victimized by illegal immigrants, including 22-year-old murder victim Laken Riley, and other young women who had been assaulted. One woman, Amanda Keifer, was assaulted in 2008 by an illegal immigrant who had been released from prison thanks to then DA Kamala Harris' programs. 

The Trump-Vance campaign also sent out multiple releases highlighting the failures from the Biden-Harris administration on the southern border, especially Vice President Harris. 

As we covered earlier, Trump's visit comes after Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) delivered remarks at the DNC just the night before during which he claimed Harris has and will be "tough as nails" on the border. The Trump-Vance campaign referred to as the "most absurd lie yet from the DNC stage."

The DNC also missed out on honoring such victims, as the Trump War Room X account called them out for.