“Each one of these individuals was someone’s child,” Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in his opening statement. “Each one is a victim of the Biden-Harris open border policies.”

The hearing stretched over 5 1/2 hours with breaks for votes, often after hearing the heartbreaking accounts from the victims’ loved ones.

Democrats largely lamented that Republicans had not worked on a bipartisan basis to pass immigration reform over the past year and a half, while Republicans blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for implementing border policies that had led to a record-high 10 million migrant encounters since taking office, overwhelming the immigration system and allowing unvetted people into the country.

The Department of Homeland Security has maintained that it screens and vets immigrants based on the information available at the time of screening. However, the witnesses on site Tuesday offered contradicting accounts for how suspects in their daughters’ cases had managed to get in despite criminal histories and gang affiliation.

1. Rachel Morin’s mother: My 1975 kidnapping ‘is nothing’ compared to what daughter suffered

The mother of a 37-year-old Maryland woman allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant testified to lawmakers that she herself was a violent crime survivor whose brutal ordeal decades earlier paled in comparison to the horrors that her daughter, Rachel Morin, faced.

Patty Morin of Harford County, Maryland, recalled Tuesday on Capitol Hill in an emotional hearing on border crime how she was kidnapped as a 14-year-old girl, raped repeatedly, and eventually rescued by police in 1975.

“I can tell you that what I suffered as a teenager at the hand of a criminally insane man is nothing compared to the horrors that my daughter suffered, and it’s because of these open borders,” Morin said during her opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee.

Morin’s story was one of several horrific accounts that witnesses shared before lawmakers about the crimes their family members had been victims of during the Biden administration, an attempt by Republicans to focus the public’s attention on the illegal immigration crisis ahead of the November election.

Morin’s 37-year-old daughter, a mother of five children, was raped and murdered while on a jog in August 2023. Police in Oklahoma arrested the prime suspect in the case after a 10-month search that involved the FBI and local and state law enforcement.

Morin said the suspect, Victor Martinez-Hernandez of El Salvador, was intercepted three times attempting to enter the United States from Mexico and returned, only to make it in the fourth time without getting caught. The suspect had a global warrant for murder in his home country and had fled to the U.S. to escape arrest.

“I wish there was a way to show you pictures of [my daughter] and what she looked like, what the crime scene looked like,” Morin said. “It’s the most brutal crime that has happened in Maryland that they can even remember. Her children are having a hard time. All of us as a family are having a hard time. We have nightmares.”

Chilling testimony from Patty Morin, Rachel's mother. She herself was kidnapped at 14.

"What I suffered as a teenager at the hand of a criminally insane man is nothing compared to the horrors that my daughter suffered & it's because of these open borders." pic.twitter.com/PBUh952zLu

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) September 10, 2024

Morin said her own ordeal did not touch how abhorrent her daughter’s death was.

“In 1975, there was a 14-year-old girl who was abducted from her house by a criminally insane man,” Morin said. “She was kidnapped. She walked 60 miles towards the Canadian border with this man, no food, no no water — walk through the woods at night. She was raped multiple times. The parents and the police did not expect to find this girl, and if they did, they did not expect to find her alive.

“I’m that teenager, and I realize some of you are disinterested in this because you just think it’s a partisan thing, but these are American people,” Morin said. “These are American families. If I can survive a crime from an American citizen, these people that are coming over the border, if they’re coming over illegally, it’s because they have something to hide those that come here illegally.”

Just 15 minutes from where Morin lived, she said another woman, 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton, was raped and murdered by another illegal immigrant from El Salvador a year earlier.

Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, testified in the same hearing that federal police failed to vet Hamilton’s convicted murderer, Walter Javier Martinez, at the southern border when he crossed alone at the age of 16 and did not follow up on his whereabouts after releasing him to an adult in the U.S. The shortcomings enabled Martinez to take her daughter’s life in July 2022.

2. Crime victim advocate snaps at Democratic congresswoman: ‘That is insulting’

The hearing exploded when Jordan asked the victims’ families and friends if they felt “exploited” by Republicans following lines of questioning by Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) and Glenn Ivey (D-MD).

Escobar had touted the Senate bipartisan border bill as “so draconian” as the “most border hardening bill ever written” and said Republicans were not working with Democrats to change laws after blocking that bill from passage, though conservatives have touted the bill as being soft on the border.

“There is very little interest on the other side of working in a bipartisan way to find meaningful solutions,” Escobar said.

Each witness who represented a family member killed by a suspected or convicted illegal immigrant said they did not feel exploited by Republicans.

Anne Fundner, the mother of a fentanyl poisoning victim, Weston, targeted Escobar and Ivey.

“I find it very interesting that all five minutes for both of your testimonies on the Left have not had any questions for us up here, but instead a speech,” Fundner said. “I’m getting tired of hearing about the most comprehensive border bill, which did nothing for immigration, I mean, for American citizens. It gave visas to people who needed to extend their visas, and it gave asylum to people coming over, and it did zero for an American citizen.”

Anne Fundner, mother of fentanyl poisoning victim Weston, goes after House Democrats (particularly Escobar, Ivey) in hearing on border crime:

"I don't feel exploited in any way. As a matter of fact, I find it very interesting that all five minutes for both of your testimonies on… pic.twitter.com/GIq57OKcMU

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) September 10, 2024

April Aguirre, a Houston-based crime victims’ advocate, responded to Jordan’s question with a direct response to Escobar.

“I’d like a phone call from you to see what you can do to help these families because every single week, I get bombarded with calls from victims all over the United States, but I’m just a small person with a small foundation that helps people here locally in Houston and Harris County,” Aguirre said. “Not one time when her daughter was murdered and I was helping her navigate the criminal justice system did one Democrat call me to offer their assistance. It was only Republicans.”

Escobar interrupted and said she would be “happy to call.”

“No, please don’t speak over me, because I’m still talking,” Aguirre retorted.

“OK, I was responding to your invitation to talk,” Escobar said.

“I have the mic. I have the floor. I have the floor. If you want to answer me, you ask,” Aguirre said, as Jordan jumped in and said Aguirre had the authority to speak.

“You said some very broad statements,” Aguirre said. “It’s insulting. These people lost loved ones. They lost children, and we want to see a difference. We may not understand everything that’s going on, but I assure you that we’re not being used in any way. And if today, somebody calls that number that wants to help from any side of the aisle, we want solutions.”

“That’s what I just talked about,” Escobar said. “I just talked about solutions, ma’am.”

“Don’t make an assumption that we’re being used,” Aguirre said. “That is insulting.”

Escobar interrupted and said the hearing was “exploiting” the witnesses.

“Insulting!” Aguirre yelled as Jordan directed the questioning to the next lawmaker.

CAPITOL HILL: Advocate for illegal immigrant crime victims, April Aguirre @AprilAguirreTx, goes after Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar: "DON'T SPEAK OVER ME!"@Jim_Jordan had asked witnesses if they feel Dems were right to ask if GOP was "exploiting" them pic.twitter.com/YFQI01f1w9

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) September 10, 2024

3. Swalwell loses it over AI-generated Trump cat memes

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) offered the most heartfelt reassurance to the victims in attendance, but quickly pivoted to internet memes.

“I’m sorry to each of you for the circumstances that have brought you here,” Swalwell said. “I’m truly sorry that this has happened to your loved ones, and the persons responsible for the deaths of Weston, Arlene, Rachel, Kayla, and Jocelyn should die in jail and then rot in hell. That’s what they deserve.”

He endorsed building a border wall, adding that he wants “barriers on our southern border at every place it makes sense.”

However, Swalwell then accused Jordan of not taking the matter seriously.

Eric Swalwell (D) goes after Chairman Jim Jordan (R) in House Judiciary hearing on border crime

Swalwell accuses Jordan of not being serious on helping crime victims families after tweeting images of Trump protecting duck and kitten pic.twitter.com/PNCAleFQMk

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) September 10, 2024

“The chairman yesterday tweeted, ‘When President Trump was in office, the border was secure and the illegal aliens weren’t eating your pets.’ He also then tweeted again, knowing that you’re going to come here to talk about your loved ones who were lost, you would expect some seriousness, some gravitas, respect for the people who came here. What in the hell is this?” Swalwell asked, pointing to pictures of screenshotted X posts on a poster behind him.

“The chairman tweets, ‘Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio,’ because he goes down, goes down some crazy rabbit hole, completely debunked, that [illegal] aliens are eating pets,” Swalwell said. “My God, are you OK, Mr. Chairman? Mr. Chairman, this is a serious issue. These people have loved ones who have been lost, and you tweeted this. So I am sorry that you came here expecting seriousness. You are serious. They are not, and you deserve a hell of a lot more than what you’re getting.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), running mate to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has repeatedly touted in the last few days that Haitian migrants released into the U.S. from the border have resorted to killing and eating neighborhood animals, including kittens and ducks.

Officials in Springfield, Ohio, have denied the claims and said they have not received credible information to support Vance’s statements.

Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, has also shared the claim on his social media outlet.

4. Families of victims blame Biden-Harris administration for all deaths

Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) asked witnesses if they felt safe in the U.S. in light of what they had experienced.

Nobles said Harris ought to allow her daughter’s convicted killer to move in and live with her.

“You can have Walter come live with you because Kayla was murdered in her own bed,” Fry said. “She was sleeping, and she had to wake up to this monster breaking into her room and strangling her with her own phone cord. [Harris] can have him.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, killed by two suspected Venezuelan illegal immigrants in June, said safety ought to be a guarantee, not a privilege.

“We should be able to feel safe throughout all these United States, and it is a very, very broken, failed system,” Nungaray said. “We should be safe, and that shouldn’t be a question. That shouldn’t be a privilege. That should be a requirement as a U.S. citizen.”