WATCH: Families at GOP convention blame Biden’s border for relatives’ deaths

Anne Funder struggled through tears at the Republican National Convention as she delivered one of the toughest lines of the night Tuesday, saying she blamed President Biden for her son’s fentanyl overdose.

“We did everything right. I had those conversations with him. And fentanyl still found my son,” Ms. Funder said.

The border took center stage at the convention as Republicans put faces to the chaos that’s spread at the U.S.-Mexico boundary under President Biden.

Ms. Funder was followed by the family of Rachel Morin, the Maryland mother who was brutally slain on a walking trail and whose death has been laid at the feet of an illegal immigrant who fled to the U.S. after killing a woman in El Salvador.

“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous. But there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother,” brother Michael Morin said.

Ms. Funder said her teenage son, Weston, died after taking something urged on him by friends. She said it contained a lethal dose of fentanyl, which authorities say is pouring across the border, smuggled by the same cartels that also control the migrant-smuggling routes.

“Joe Biden does nothing. I hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris — the border czar, what a joke — and [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son,” Ms. Funder said. “We need President Trump back to save the lives of our kids.”

Mr. Trump has made victims of immigration a centerpiece of his presidential campaigns dating back to 2015, when he seized on the death of Kate Steinle at the hands of a five-time deportee protected by San Francisco’s sanctuary policies.

A rash of new violence from migrants who entered on Mr. Biden’s watch has reinvigorated Mr. Trump’s border argument, and Republicans used Tuesday night’s convention programming to drive home the differences between the two men’s policies.

“Every day, Americans are dying. Murdered. Assaulted. Raped. By illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican.

Mr. Cruz spoke to delegates after a video showing masses of migrants rushing across the border and stylized images of a dead body on a gurney — a reference to the death toll from fentanyl that’s smuggled across the border by the same cartels responsible for the flow of illegal immigrants.

The senator said Mr. Trump will fix things.

“I know this because I’ve worked hand in hand with President Trump to secure our border and we achieved the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years,” Mr. Cruz said. “it’s real simple. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, recounted his own border trip, saying he talked with migrants massed on the U.S. side and asked them why they came. None said they were fleeing persecution, which is what asylum is supposed to be for.

“Most said for a job. A few admitted because they could get in. Another answered with one simple word: Biden,” Mr. Cotton said. “My flight home the next day was full of these migrants, and you — all of you — paid for these tickets.”

He contrasted that immigration story with another man named Manuel, a contractor in Arkansas who was a legal permanent resident but not a citizen in 2020. He couldn’t vote for Mr. Trump, but his family did.

When asked why, Mr. Cotton said, Manuel pointed to the new pickup truck in the parking lot and his family that had jobs with him.

“Manuel became a citizen last year and he’s excited to vote for the first time — for Donald Trump,” Mr. Cotton said.