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(NewsNation) — Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, the 37-year-old Maryland woman who was killed while on a run in August 2023, says she thinks her daughter would be proud of her efforts to keep her name alive.
“(Rachel Morin) is a defender of life too,” Patty Morin said on “NewsNation Prime.” “I think all mothers are. We want to protect our families and our loved ones, and I wasn’t there to protect my daughter, but I don’t want another mother to feel the pain that I feel.”
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an El Salvador national who entered the United States illegally multiple times, was arrested and charged with murder and rape in connection to Rachel Morin’s case.
Since Rachel Morin’s death, Patty Morin has testified in Congress about enhancing border security.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last September, Patty Morin talked about how she was also the victim of sexual violence when a man kidnapped her for three days and raped her at night.
Learning law enforcement had found Rachel Morin’s body “tore me apart,” Patty Morin said, “because a part of me could understand some of what she suffered.”
Added Patty Morin, “I know what it’s like to be raped, not knowing if you’re going to live.”
“Just the fear that you have for your life and just the shame that you feel — she felt those things, and so it just broke my heart to know that she had experienced those things,” Patty Morin said.
On Wednesday, Patty Morin was at the White House when President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act.
Under the Laken Riley Act, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is required to detain an individual if they are in the country illegally or accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer or any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.
Being at the White House was a mix of emotions, Morin said, and she’s encouraged by the passing of the law.
“We were treated like royalty, which I so greatly appreciate,” she told NewsNation of her experience.