Democratic governor 'infuriated' by murder of Rachel Morin, refuses to criticize Biden for migrant crimes

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore expressed anger over the murder of Rachel Morin, allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant, but stopped short of criticizing President Biden's border policies. 

"I'm infuriated, and our state is still mourning," Moore said during "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. "This is a mother of five. Someone who had her life ahead of her. Many celebrations with her family ahead of her, and her life was cut short."

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"Harford County in our state… where this brutal murder happened is 1,800 miles away from the border, and so when people think this is only impacting a few states, this is impacting every single one of us," he continued. 

"This inaction that we continue to see to get any form of sensible immigration policy done is impacting all of us, because all of us and local jurisdictions deal with the consequences of this."

Rachel Morin, the Maryland mom of five, was brutally raped and murdered while hiking near her home last year. Police announced the arrest of Victor Martinez Hernandez, a 23-year-old illegal El Salvadorian migrant, last Friday after a 10-month investigation.

Hernandez, who has reportedly been in the U.S. since February 2023, was apprehended while "casually sitting" at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Police said he arrived in the states only a month after he allegedly murdered a young woman in El Salvador. His DNA was also linked to a March home invasion in Los Angeles where a mother and her 9-year-old daughter were assaulted, according to authorities.

"Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade pressed Moore on Biden's role in the current border crisis and migrant crimes. 

"No one has been worse at the border than the president," Kilmeade said. "No one's been worse than him. You have to agree with that."

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Moore insisted that there is no "partisan" blame to be assigned to the Biden administration for migrant crimes.

"This thing is so long-standing, and there's been a lack of courage that we have seen for a long period of time in Washington that has allowed this to take place," Moore said. "There's nothing I take more seriously than public safety, but they're allowing people in my state to become victims because of a long-standing inaction that we continue to see across Congress, and we've got to move on this."

The White House has since offered "condolences" to Morin's loved ones but would not say what steps it would take to secure the border.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Rachel Morin," a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We cannot comment on active law enforcement cases. But fundamentally, we believe that people should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law if they are found to be guilty."

The arrest of Martinez Hernandez comes just a few months after the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, 22, who was found dead near Oconee Forest Park in Athens, Georgia, after going for a jog. The suspect in that case, José Antonio Ibarra, is a 26-year-old native of Venezuela who also entered the U.S. illegally.

Earlier on the show, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell spoke about the arrest of an illegal immigrant from Ecuador for the rape of a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint.

Fox News' Yael Halon, Michael Lee and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.