Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘This Is The Result’: Blue State Sheriff Says ‘Porous Border’ Reason For ‘Preventable’ Murder Of Mom Of 5

Screenshot/Grabien/Fox N

A Maryland sheriff said that the “porous border” between the United States and Mexico was why the “preventable” August 2023 murder of a mother of five in that state occurred.

Authorities in Oklahoma arrested 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez for the murder of 37-year-old Rachel Morin on Friday. Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told “America’s Newsroom” co-host Bill Hemmer that politicians “allowed” the murder of Morin to happen by failing to secure the border and expressed hope that there were no other victims.

“Our fear was that somebody who would do something as heinous as what he did to Rachel would do it to other people here in our country, other women would suffer the same end of their life, and indeed, hopefully not additional, we haven’t found any cases yet,” Gahler told Hemmer. “He killed a woman in El Salvador and why he fled there to come here through our open border. He tried to come in legally and was turned away and that didn’t deter him because we have such a porous border and he came right through and this is the result.”

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‘This Is The Result’: Blue State Sheriff Says ‘Porous Border’ Reason For ‘Preventable’ Murder Of Mom Of 5 pic.twitter.com/1X32P7T8o8

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 17, 2024

Hemmer noted that Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland blamed Congress for not passing a bipartisan border-security bill and asked Gahler about it.

“I answer to the citizens in our county and I care about public safety. The governor was right, but he went on to say that blame President Trump,” Gahler said. “The border was never more secure than when President Trump was in office. It has been an issue dating way back in my 40 years in law enforcement. I wrote a letter in 2019 calling them to secure the border, that was Trump in office, and he did do a better job of securing the border.”

“It needs to be a bipartisan effort on both parties’ parts and whoever is sitting in the White House to actually come up with a decent and workable solution, immigration policy for those people who want to come and contribute to our society and not people who want to murder,” Gahler continued.

Police in Los Angeles wanted Martinez-Hernandez for his role in the March 2023 home invasion, seeking him on charges of assault and residential burglary, the Baltimore Sun reported. United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported the Border Patrol had more than 7 million encounters with illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021.

Illegal immigration has become a prominent issue in the 2024 campaign after a series of crimes involving illegal immigrants. In February, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, was arrested by University of Georgia police and charged with murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.

Only 32% of voters approve of President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration, according to the RealClearPolling average of polls from May 15 to June 11, while 60% disapprove of his handling of the issue.

“I don’t want him to leave Maryland ever again,” Gahler said about Martinez-Hernandez. “We don’t have a death penalty in Maryland, but I hope he dies in one of our prisons for what he did in this case to our community and to Rachel and for Rachel’s family, God love them. You saw that interview. You played that interview with her mom. That shouldn’t happen to families in our country. This is preventable.”

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