Democratic Representative Nadler is pictured with his head bowed and eyes closed during testimony from mothers of migrant victims.

Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is under fire after he appeared to close his eyes and bow his head during his testimony before Congress on Tuesday about the impact of migrant crime on victims' families, sparking criticism that leading Democrats were not taking the issue seriously and were disrespectful to those in mourning.

Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) skewered the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee after the incident sparked anger in the audience.

Also seen in the photo, with a box of tissues in the foreground, is a staff member next to Nadler looking at his cellphone as mothers who lost their daughters to suspected foreign rapists and murderers told their traumatic stories to the committee.

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“One of the ladies who came with me took a picture of the Democrats on the other side as we were talking and telling our stories, we, the mothers, mothers crying and telling our stories – and one of them is sleeping and the other is on the phone,” said Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was brutally raped and murdered after police say she was attacked by an illegal immigrant on a jogging trail near her Maryland home.

Cathie Groenewold, a church friend of Morin's who took the photo, said she found Nadler's behavior deeply offensive.

“I was amazed at the carefree attitude of Jerry Nadler and … the man sitting to his right,” she told Fox News Digital. “These women who have lost their children to fentanyl and the most gruesome murders imaginable are pouring their hearts out and don't have the decency to stand up and give them their undivided attention.”

Nadler and other Democrats appeared to view the hearing as a partisan “stunt,” she said.

“I'm sorry, but these women are raising awareness of a serious problem,” she said. “It's not a trick and they weren't forced to come here.”

Morin's 37-year-old daughter was a mother of five and a small business owner. Her suspected killer is a 23-year-old from El Salvador named Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, who is also suspected of killing another woman in his home country and sexually assaulting a woman and her 9-year-old daughter during a burglary in Los Angeles.

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Rachel Morin was dragged from a hiking trail and murdered on August 5, 2023. (Handout for families)

Prosecutors allege a gruesome attack that left Morin with severe head injuries and bruises in Bel Air, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. Her remains were found in a sewer.

Speaking to Fox News Digital after the hearing, Patty Morin said she did not go there to be part of a partisan campaign, but that she hoped to convince lawmakers to take migrant crime seriously.

“This is an American problem, and if we don't do something, families will be devastated,” she said. “I don't want another family or another mother to feel the way I do. I can't describe the pain to you. And it's not like it just goes away, like time heals all wounds. It doesn't. The pain stays. You just learn to live with the pain.”

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However, she said she did not feel that her message had reached them.

“It was so discouraging,” she said.

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

A crying Patty Morin holds a tissue as she testifies before the House Judiciary Committee about the brutal murder of her daughter, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Ministry of Justice)

At the beginning of the hearing, the long-time New York congressman first expressed his condolences to the witnesses.

“I can’t imagine how difficult this loss was for you,” he said.

He then changed his mind and called the hearing “another partisan hearing designed to divide us and gain political capital before the election.”

Four of the eight witnesses lost their children in connection with the border crisis.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, arrives in Maryland. He is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in connection with Rachel Morin's death in Bel Air, Maryland. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Getty Images)

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To Morin's left sat Anne Fundner, whose son Weston died of fentanyl poisoning. She blames Mexican drug cartels and Chinese chemicals that were able to cross the southern border unhindered.

“My son should not have had to die,” she told the committee. “His life was cut short because of political decisions – decisions made by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, those in positions of power.”

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To Morin's right sat Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who authorities say was strangled, bound and sexually assaulted before being thrown from a bridge.

In this case, two illegal immigrants from Venezuela were charged with capital crimes.

“Because of the Biden-Harris administration's open borders and catch and release policies, they were placed in the Alternatives to Detention program,” Nungaray told lawmakers. “That meant they were released into the United States. It was less than three weeks before they took the life of my daughter, Jocelyn Nungaray.”

Tammy Nobles also testified about the murder of her daughter Kayla Hamilton, who was strangled and sexually assaulted in her own bed by an MS-13 member who entered the United States illegally in 2020.

Aberdeen Police have shared this combination of photos of Kayla Hamilton, who was killed in her bed by an MS-13 member and illegal immigrants from El Salvador. (Aberdeen Police Department)

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The suspect in that case, Walter Javier Martinez, is serving a 70-year prison sentence for that crime and has confessed in writing to four murders and two rapes, Nobles said.

“This is not a political issue, this is a safety issue for everyone who lives here in the United States,” she told the committee. “Not only was Kayla's life put at risk and taken, but the lives of many other children and adults were also put at risk and taken.”