Blaze News original: What mothers of murdered victims of the open border are demanding to save American girls

The Biden-Harris administration's immigration crisis has impacted nearly all areas of American life, causing housing crises, strained resources, exponential costs to taxpayers, and an increase in crime and transnational gang activity. But the true victims of the administration's open-border policies are the citizens — and, in many cases, other immigrants — who have been brutalized and even murdered by illegal aliens who never should have been granted entry into the country.

The victims of these senseless crimes and the families they have left behind are the ones who have been forced to pay the ultimate price for catch-and-release border policies and sanctuary jurisdictions. These destructive measures have disastrously succeeded in putting violent, murderous criminals first and innocent lives last.

'There's many ways to beat the system.'

In an effort to shine a light on these heartbreaking stories and the disastrous consequences of the open border, on September 10, the House Judiciary Committee invited several mothers whose children were murdered by criminal illegal aliens to speak to lawmakers.

The mothers included Tammy Nobles, whose 20-year-old daughter, Kayla Hamilton, was slaughtered by a 16-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who was in the U.S. illegally; Patricia Morin, whose 37-year-old daughter, Rachel, was allegedly beaten and strangled to death by a 23-year-old El Salvadoran who had fled his home country after being accused of murdering another young woman; and Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was allegedly raped and murdered by two illegal Venezuelan nationals, 22 and 26 years old.

Crime victim advocate April Aguirre also joined the mothers on behalf of the family of 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez, who was murdered in her home by an 18-year-old illegal immigrant.

April Aguirre (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

Kayla Hamilton

Nobles was the first of the mothers to address lawmakers. She explained how her daughter, whom she described as a happy and ambitious person who loved the Lord, passed away in July 2022. Arrested and convicted for her sexual assault and murder was Walter Javier Martinez.

At the time of the murder, Javier Martinez was 16 years old. Nobles explained that the boy had previously been apprehended by Border Patrol agents for crossing into the country approximately four months before he attacked her daughter.

The teenager claimed that he feared gang activity in his home country of El Salvador and was ultimately granted entry into the United States as an unaccompanied child.

"No background checks or vetting," Nobles told House members.

She explained that Javier Martinez was eventually removed from his sponsor's home over behavioral issues and placed with his half-brother, who resided at a Maryland mobile park where Nobles' daughter also lived. Due to additional behavioral issues, the teenager was removed from that home, and the mobile park's property manager allowed him to rent a room in the same mobile home as Nobles' daughter.

'Kayla fought for her life that day.'

"Martinez was living there less than five days before he violently and brutally murdered my daughter. Walter Javier Martinez broke into Kayla's room while she was sleeping that morning," Nobles told lawmakers. "Kayla left a voicemail on her boyfriend's phone. According to the voicemail, a struggle was going on, and Kayla can be heard crying, groaning, and struggling to breathe."

"Martinez can be heard on the voicemail hushing her and near the end telling her 'I'm sorry' in Spanish while strangling her with her phone cord," she continued. "After she was deceased, Martinez tied her up and sexually assaulted her. This was confirmed by the anal swabs that matched Martinez's DNA. Kayla fought for her life that day. She had bruises up and down her arms, her fingers, the left side of her face, her back, and down her leg and deep wounds to her neck from the cord."

Javier Martinez was sentenced to 70 years behind bars. During his time in jail, Javier Martinez confessed to four other murders and two rapes.

Nobles concluded her testimony by noting that the immigration crisis is "not a political issue" but rather "a safety issue for everyone living here in the United States."

"The Biden-Harris administration is not putting the American citizens' safety first," Nobles declared. "The United States government must secure our border. We need to properly vet and background-check all border-crossers. This isn't about immigration; this is about protecting everyone in the United States."

Zachary Apotheker, a Border Patrol agent who has recently started speaking out against the immigration crisis, told Blaze News that in many cases, "We don't have their criminal history."

In some instances, including UACs or when immigrants arrive with children, "We're taking people's word," he said.

"The adults may not show up with documents, but then the children may not show up with documents, or maybe false documents. So we're just taking their word that this child is now this person's child — that's their biological parents," Apotheker told Blaze News. "We don't even know if the adult that they're with is a criminal."

"We really can't definitively say, and we can't track them. ... Now, imagine if they're unaccompanied," he continued. "We're just sending them somewhere, so maybe a relative's house. How do we even know that it's the relative's house? And then who's following up on it?"

"So that's where you can see, easily, there's many ways to beat the system," Apotheker added.

Rachel Morin

In a written statement, Patricia Morin noted that she hoped her heart-wrenching testimony about her daughter's August 2023 murder would act as a "wake-up call that this country needs to secure its borders and protect American citizens."

She referred to the southern border as a "horrendous war zone" and blamed the Biden-Harris administration for its open-border policies that have had "a devastating impact across our great nation."

Morin explained that Rachel, a "loving" and "playful" mother of five, was attacked by a man while jogging on the MA & PA Trail near her home in Maryland. She explained that it "took months" for law enforcement officials to find the suspect after discovering Rachel deceased and "badly beaten."

'This man was wanted for killing a woman in his home country when he walked into ours.'

"She was strangled. She was raped. The medical examiner said that she had bruises that blanketed her body. She had 10 to 15 head wounds. And she was stuffed into a drainpipe," Morin told lawmakers. "I went to the funeral home because I had to decide if we could do an open casket for our grandchildren, for our family."

"You could tell from looking at my daughter that they had filled in all the holes with wax," she continued. "They tried to straighten her broken nose and tried to align her face back the way that it could look normal. And she was covered with makeup so thick, it didn't even look like it was a human being. And I wasn't allowed to see from the neck down the rest of her body."

"I wish there was a way to show you pictures of her and what she looked like, what the crime scene looked like," Morin added. "It's the most brutal crime that has happened in Maryland that they can even remember."

After a 10-month nationwide manhunt, police finally arrested Victor Martinez Hernandez, an El Salvadoran national and suspected gang member, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"We felt relieved when the suspect was finally caught. But that relief quickly turned to horror and outrage when we learned that the suspect was an illegal immigrant. This man was wanted for killing a woman in his home country when he walked into ours," Morin stated in her written testimony.

Morin said that her daughter's alleged killer would never have been released into the country if law enforcement agents at the border had swabbed him for DNA the first three times he attempted to enter the U.S. but was sent back.

Martinez Hernandez had an open Interpol warrant for a murder he allegedly committed in his home country. He was also accused of attacking a 9-year-old girl and her mother in California.

Morin concluded her testimony by telling Congress members another story.

"In 1975, there was a 14-year-old girl who was abducted from her house by a criminally insane man. She was kidnapped. She walked 60 miles towards the Canadian border with this man. No food. No water," Morin stated. "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," Morin said, choking back tears. "And 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."

"I realize some of you are disinterested in this because you just think it's a partisan thing, but these are American people. These are American families. These are our children," she said. "We need to close the borders."

Jocelyn Nungaray

Alexis Nungaray started her statements by telling lawmakers her story of motherhood.

"I was 14 years old when I found out I was going to be a mother," she stated. "Everyone in my family was terrified that I was going to ruin my life by being a teen mom. They tried to throw every option at me as a way out because I still had my whole life ahead of me. Regardless of my young age, I needed to do what was right, which was be the best mom I could be to my daughter."

"I fought for her," she remarked. When Jocelyn was born, Nungaray said she "couldn't stop staring at her." She described her 12-year-old daughter as "funny," "loving," and "beautiful."

"It has been two months and 25 days since my daughter has gained her wings. On Monday, June 17, 2024, I received the worst news any parent can receive," she continued. "My daughter, Jocelyn Nungaray, was murdered and thrown in a bayou of water underneath a creek like she was garbage."

'I believe the Biden-Harris administration's open-border policies are responsible for the death of my 12-year-old daughter.'

Nungaray explained that law enforcement agents told her that Jocelyn had been "strangled to death" and was discovered with "no clothing from the waist down" with her "hands and ankles each tied together."

The two men arrested for her daughter's murder were illegal immigrants: 22-year-old Johan Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Pena. The suspects reportedly spotted Jocelyn while she was walking to a convenience store that morning. They allegedly lured her out of the store and under a bridge near a Houston creek.

"Border Patrol apprehended Johan Martinez near El Paso on March 14, but he was released that same day on an order of recognizance with a notice to appear. Border Patrol also apprehended Franklin Pena on May 28, also near El Paso. On that same day he was apprehended, a judge also ordered Franklin Pena to appear in court at a later date," Nungaray told lawmakers.

She noted that at the time of the murder, there were over 300 detention bed spaces available where the two men should have been detained while awaiting immigration court hearings.

"Because of the Biden-Harris administration's open borders, catch-and-release policies, they were enrolled in an 'Alternatives to Detention' program. This meant they were released into the interior of the United States. It was not even a full three weeks later that they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray's life," the mother stated. "I believe the Biden-Harris administration's open-border policies are responsible for the death of my 12-year-old daughter."

Nungaray noted that she has been working closely with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to pass the Justice for Jocelyn Act, which would clamp down on Alternatives to Detention, requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention bed space to be filled and all other reasonable options to be exhausted before releasing illegal aliens from custody. The federal government would also be required to implement GPS monitoring for all releases awaiting immigration hearings.

"If the Justice for Jocelyn Act were law, Jocelyn Nungaray would be alive today," Cruz stated. "The illegal immigrants who committed those crimes were released into Texas by the Biden-Harris administration. The Senate should immediately take up and pass the Justice for Jocelyn Act, so that no parent ever has to go through what Alexis has gone through."

Maria Gonzalez

During her opening statements, April Aguirre told lawmakers, "As a daughter of immigrant parents, I am ashamed of what the Biden-Harris administration has done to our country by opening our borders to all, including criminals who are wolves in sheep's clothing."

She told lawmakers the tragic story of 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez, a migrant child who was strangled and sexually assaulted inside her home.

Gonzalez lived in a Texas apartment complex with her father, who was away at work at the time of his daughter's brutal murder.

'Dad, is that you knocking on the door?'

"She was in the safety of her home. This migrant [the suspect] that came here as a child crossed the border, was given to a sponsor, and was only here three weeks before he decided to leave his sponsor's home, go to Pasadena, Texas, from Louisiana," Aguirre explained. "He saw Maria. At one point or another, he decided that was going to be his prey."

Aguirre explained that the suspect, 18-year-old Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, knew the Gonzalezes' schedule, waiting to attack Maria until shortly after her father had left for work.

"He knocked on Maria's door. Maria, recognizing that it was a neighbor, told her father on WhatsApp on a voice message, 'Hey Dad, somebody's knocking on the door,' and she said it in Spanish," Aguirre continued. "'Dad, is that you knocking on the door?' Thinking that her father had forgotten something. That was the last time he ever heard Maria's voice."

Her father found his daughter's body stuffed into a plastic bag inside a laundry basket placed underneath his bed.

"Maria was so covered in bruises I had to go and shop for a funeral dress for her to cover the damage that that man did to her," Aguirre stated.

She said, "To you all, three little girls passing away may not be many. But what if one of those little girls was your daughter, your granddaughter, your niece? Can you imagine them trying to fight a grown man off of them, the shock of being undressed, the pain of being beaten and smothered? Trying to fight for your life while a predator's one objective is to use them to satisfy their sick and demented appetites?"

She accused the Biden-Harris administration of having "blood on [its] hands" for implementing open-border policies that have failed to vet dangerous criminals.

Aguirre told Blaze News that she believes Gonzalez's story is "so impactful because it highlights that we're letting everything through the border."

"Maria Gonzalez's case finally made it national, and I was happy for that, because she was also a migrant child," Aguirre explained. "Alongside hardworking migrants that want to come here and give their family a better life, we're also dealing with migrants that are willing to come here and rape and murder and torture an 11-year-old."

Hearing reaches a fever pitch

Following the mothers' and Aguirre's opening statements to members of Congress, the hearing became heated after a Democratic lawmaker accused Republican colleagues of exploiting the families' pain for political gain.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) told the women, "I think what is most frustrating to me, as a member of Congress, is what is happening today at this committee hearing, where we have colleagues who are exploiting people's pain for political purposes. And unfortunately, that's what's happening today."

She called it "frustrating" that certain members of Congress were "finger-pointing at the administration."

"I can tell you that I have been pushing a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that addresses outdated border policies and that addresses migration and immigration together. There are eight Republicans who've had the courage to join that bill. None of them are on this committee, and that bill cannot move because of the obstacles put in front of that," she said, referring to the now-blocked Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 815.

'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.'

Escobar further claimed that Republican lawmakers have withheld resources the federal government needs to solve the immigration crisis.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) followed Escobar's statements by asking those on the panel whether Republican lawmakers had forced them to participate in the hearing.

"Ms. Nobles, did Republicans on this committee ... or any Republican staff exploit you in any way to come to today's hearing?" Jordan asked.

"No, I am not being forced to be here. I am here because I want to be here, and I want changes to be made," Nobles responded.

"How about you, Ms. Morin? Did you feel exploited in any way? That's what the Democrat just said," Jordan continued.

Morin replied, "No, I don't feel exploited at all."

"Ms. Nungaray?" Jordan asked.

"No, I do not feel exploited. I simply want to raise awareness that we need change, and my daughter's voice and her memory should not get lost in that," Nungaray stated.

Jordan then called on Aguirre, and she did not miss a beat rebuking Escobar's claims.

"It's insulting that you would say that to these families. That you would make an assumption that they're being used or exploited in any way," Aguirre retorted.

Aguirre read out her phone number 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," she declared.

She stated that Democratic politicians "not one time" reached out to offer their help when she was assisting Nungaray as the grieving mother navigated the justice system following her daughter's murder.

"It was only Republicans. And I am an independent. I vote both ways. So it's insulting," Aguirre added.

Escobar attempted to interrupt several times, but Aguirre responded, "No, please. Don't speak over me."

"You said some very broad statements. It's insulting," she continued. "I assure you that we're not being used in any way."

Aguirre told Blaze News that Escobar's office did reach out to her after the hearing, asking how the congresswoman could offer her assistance to the families of crime victims. She provided Escobar's team with a short list of requests.

"I've received crickets since then," Aguirre remarked. "Right now we have a Justice for Jocelyn Act that is being pushed by Senator Ted Cruz. I asked her to co-sponsor that."

"She doesn't want to do that," she said.

In addition, she told Blaze News that she wants members of the committee to give her access to the alien files of the illegal immigrants who allegedly murdered Jocelyn Nungaray.

"We don't have DHS files on what happened during their process of getting into this country," she explained.

In text messages shared with Blaze News, Aguirre wrote to Escobar's team, "A request letter to DHS was sent on June 25 for that information, but DHS has not produced the files to committee chair."

The DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

"Please let me know I am happy to meet with Congresswoman Escobar anytime," Aguirre wrote in another message. She also offered to connect the lawmaker with families of the crime victims.

Escobar's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Aguirre told Blaze News, "These individuals, both citizens and migrants alike, had no idea that they were going to be murdered. They might have stood on different sides of the aisles as far as immigration. Immigration crime came into their lives and destroyed it, and [anyone] could be next. Every state right now is a border state because migrants are being flown in the masses to small communities."

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