As criticism mounts over the Trump administration’s failure to heed a court order commanding the government to “facilitate” the return of a man who was mistakenly deported and incarcerated in a Salvadoran prison, the White House attempted to change the subject on Wednesday with an emotional appearance in the James Brady press briefing room by the mother of a murder victim who recounted graphic details of her daughter’s death at the hands of a Salvadoran gang member.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was accompanied at Wednesday’s briefiing by Patty Morin, a Bel Air, Maryland woman whose daughter, Rachel Morin, was raped and murdered in August 2023 by a MS-13 member, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez.
Leavitt almost immediately began shouting at the assembled journalists about how Democrats in Congress have “refused to accept the will of the people” by pushing back on the administration’s summary arrests and deportations of Latin American men without due process, as well as their subsequent incarceration in a Salvadoran prison absent any criminal charges or convictions.
She specifically called out Democrats and news outlets for describing one of those deportees, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as a “Maryland father” and repeated the administration’s largely unsupported claim that Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador despite a standing immigration court order barring him from being sent back to that country, was an “MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist.”
She also attacked Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen for traveling to San Salvador in an effort to obtain information on Abrego Garcia’s welfare.
“Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again,” said Leavitt, who proceeded to misstate the meaning of a Supreme Court decision ordering the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
“It's appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” she added.
At that point, Leavitt introduced Morin, who became emotional as she told reporters about what she called “puzzle pieces” that were kept secret by Hartford County, Maryland prosecutors until Martinez-Hernandez’s trial, which ended this week with him being found guilty of first-degree murder and rape.
She said the convicted killer, who was tried before a jury in Maryland and was represented by counsel guaranteed to him by the U.S. Constitution, had “taken” her daughter “so violently and so gruesomely and so graphically” that the court has ordered the crime scene and autopsy photos sealed out of respect for her family. She said Martinez-Hernandez and other MS-13 members were “the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country.”
Morin also attacked Van Hollen, accusing him of failing to acknowledge her daughter’s murder and asked why he would fly to El Salvador in an effort to retrieve Abrego Garcia, who had nothing to do with that crime.
Leavitt then thanked her and ended the briefing. The press secretary initially asked if any reporters had questions for her or for Morin. But when one reporter said they did have a question, Leavitt simply said “No” and walked out. Members of the press then expressed their sympathies to Morin who stood and listened before leaving the room herself.
The White House’s decision to enlist Morin to deliver the graphic description of her daughter’s killing at the hands of an MS-13 member comes as the Trump administration continues to fight against a string of court decisions rebuking their mistaken deportation of Abrego Garcia, which officials say is justified based solely on the government’s determination that he was a gang member and the president’s decision to declare MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization.
Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador in 2011 when he was 16 years old fearing gang violence and extortion threats against his family. He entered the United States illegally at the time but a judge granted a withholding order that prevents his removal from the country for humanitarian reasons in 2019.
He has a five-year-old child with his wife, both U.S. citizens. The couple also is raising two other children with special needs from a previous relationship.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him during a traffic stop last month, and he was swiftly deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center on March 15.
The White House and government attorneys have repeatedly admitted that his removal was due to an “administrative error.” But the administration has refused to seek his return and instead are fighting in court to continue his imprisonment as a member of a “foreign terrorist organization,” which administration officials argue supersedes any court order against his removal.
Officials contend that Abrigo Garcia is a “leader” of MS-13, citing a local police report describing his clothes and an unnamed informant that labeled him a member. Officials also claim he is “involved in human trafficking” but have not provided any evidence to support the allegation.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s “release from custody in El Salvador.” On Tuesday, a federal judge in Maryland rebuked the Trump administration for doing “nothing” since then.
Judge Paula Xinis has ordered what she called an “intense” two-week inquiry into the administration’s failure to return him.
Leavitt’s remarks follow Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador, where he tried to meet or speak with Abrego Garcia and help negotiate his release. Salvadoran officials denied his requests, he said.
Other Democratic members of Congress are pushing for a delegation to travel to the prison.
But the White House is refusing to back down, with Trump administration officials suggesting that the Democrats and civil liberties groups who are expressing opposition to the use of a foreign prison and summary deportations without due process are walking into a political trap. Officials have also stated that Abrego Garcia would be immediately removed to another country — something that would have been permitted had the administration followed the existing judicial order before deporting him to El Salvador — if he were somehow to be brought back.
“He is not coming back to our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s the end of the story … There was no situation, ever, where he was going to stay in this country. None. None.”
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