Their daughters were killed about one year and 15 miles apart in Harford County, so for Patty Morin and Tammy Nobles, Tuesday’s congressional hearing wasn’t about political theater.

It was about women like Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton — who authorities say were killed by men in the country illegally.

“Some of you are disinterested in this because you just think it’s a partisan thing, but these are American people,” Patty Morin told the House Judiciary Committee. “These are American families. These are our children and pretty soon they will be our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We need to close the borders.”

Her 37-year-old daughter, Rachel Morin, was raped and beaten to death last year during a run on a hiking trail in Bel Air. Sheriff’s deputies charged a Salvadoran immigrant with first-degree murder based on DNA evidence they recovered from Morin’s body. Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez had entered the U.S. illegally, authorities said, and he was wanted in the killing of a woman in El Salvador, as well as in an attack in Los Angeles.

Politicians have seized on the cases of the two Maryland women as a way to talk about what they see as the failed U.S. immigration policy.

Aberdeen Police found Kayla Hamilton, 20, strangled with a phone cord, tied up, assaulted and murdered in her rented room of a mobile home two years ago. Another young man and Salvadoran immigrant, Walter Javier Martinez, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a suspended life sentence with 70 years in prison.

He was in the U.S. illegally, too, and a member of the MS-13 gang, his defense attorney told the court.

“There are no words that describe the heart-wrenching, soul-crushing pain of losing your child so horrifically,” Tammy Nobles, Kayla’s mother, told the House committee.

The two anguished mothers were among six witnesses, including law enforcement officials, victims advocates and other grieving families members, to testify Tuesday in D.C.

Hamilton often called her boyfriend when someone knocked on her bedroom door. She had called her boyfriend during the attack, and his voicemail recorded the sounds of her struggle. Prosecutors said Martinez could be heard apologizing to Hamilton in Spanish as he killed her. Later, authorities said he wrote a letter in jail confessing to four killings, two rapes, and other crimes.

“This is not a political issue. This is a safety issue for everyone here living in the United States,” Nobles said Tuesday. “Not only was Kayla’s life put at risk and taken, so many other children and adults were at risk.”

She blamed federal immigration policies for failing to protect her daughter.

“The United States’ government must secure our border,” she said. “We need to properly vet and background check all border crossers. This isn’t about immigration. This is about protecting everyone here.”

Immigration policy has emerged as a central issue in this year’s presidential election, and Patty Morin has appeared with former President Donald Trump at the southern border. Matt McMahon, Rachel Morin’s former partner and the father of her eldest child, has said he’s disappointed to see Rachel used in all the political finger-pointing.

“If they’re coming over illegally,” Patty Morin said, “it’s because they have something to hide.”

Martinez-Hernandez is scheduled for trial next month in Harford County Circuit Court. Prosecutors have notified the judge that they intend to seek a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.