The White House released a splitscreen image overnight to underscore the stark contrast between where Republicans and Democrats stand on illegal immigration.
One image featured distraught Angel Mom Patty Morin being comforted by President Trump in the Oval Office. Morin’s daughter, Rachel Morin, was savagely beaten, raped and killed in Maryland by an illegal migrant from El Salvador in 2023.
The other image showed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sitting and talking with deported illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, in El Salvador.
The White House released a splitscreen image overnight to underscore the stark contrast between where Republicans and Democrats stand on illegal immigration. (The White House, Sen. Van Hollen via X)
RACHEL MORIN’S MOTHER TEARFULLY BEGS MEDIA TO ‘TELL THE TRUTH’ ABOUT CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Abrego Garcia was deported last month by the Trump administration, which says that he was an MS-13 gang member who also violently beat his wife.
Van Hollen, who called the deportation “absolutely unjust,” flew to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release.
“We are not the same,” the White House captioned the image while tagging Van Hollen.
The image of Morin was taken on Wednesday when she visited the White House and spoke to reporters from the White House briefing room, where she called out Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador.
She noted that Van Hollen, who represents her state, had never once reached out to her since her daughter was killed.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen (X / @nayibbukele)
“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge – 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 is not even an American citizen,” Morin said. “Why does that person have more right than I do for my daughter or my grandchildren? I don’t understand this.”
Following Martinez-Hernandez’s conviction, Van Hollen issued a statement vowing to bolster border security while also “supporting our immigrant communities.”
Patty Morin appealed to the media to “tell the truth” about violent illegal aliens who were let into the country. Rachel Morin’s killer, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, allegedly committed a murder in his home country. He was also linked to a home invasion and assault in Los Angeles before moving to Maryland.
Van Hollen flew to El Salvador this week to meet with Abrego Garcia and was denied multiple times. He was granted his request on Thursday night and met with Abrego Garcia on Friday.
Patty Morin (L), mother of Rachel Morin, speaks as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt looks on during a daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 16, 2025, in Washington, D.C. In 2023, Morin’s daughter was murdered by Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree rape on Monday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” Van Hollen wrote on X, along with the picture the White House posted. “Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love.”
Van Hollen previously said that it was “absolutely unjust and illegal to have this Marylander detained one more day in a notorious prison in El Salvador.”
Garcia who was living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported to the El Salvadoran megaprison “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) last month, and officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although now some top Trump officials say he was correctly removed and contend he’s a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
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Both a federal district court and the U.S. Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his release and return to the U.S. for proper deportation proceedings.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Abrego Garcia would not be allowed back into the U.S. unless El Salvador were to decide otherwise. “He is not coming back to our country.”
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
