Trump claims global crime rates have fallen because violent offenders head to the US when they leave prison and says he wants to meet the family of Ruby Garcia, 25, after she was ‘murdered’ by an illegal migrant
- Trump visits Grand Rapids, MI on Tuesday for an event at the border
- Ex-president says he wants to talk to the family of murdered Michigan woman
- Trump called immigration the No. 1 issue in the 2024 election
Former President Donald Trump is focusing his messaging on illegal immigration and linking it to crime as he heads to the Midwest on Tuesday for his first campaign stops in more than two weeks.
Trump called into a radio show in Michigan on Monday ahead of a visit to Grand Rapids, where he will hold an event highlighting the border following the recent killing of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia, allegedly by a man who was in the country illegally .
Garcia was shot and killed on March 22. Her body was found on the side of a highway.
25-year-old Brandon Ortiz-Vite is charged with murder after turning himself in. Police said the victim and suspect were dating.
The body of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was found with gunshot wounds on the side of US-131 in Grand Rapids in March
Brandon Ortiz-Vite is charged with the murder of Ruby Garcia. Immigration officials said he was in the country illegally
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Ortiz-Vite was in the country illegally. He had been arrested and deported in 2020, but re-entered the United States at some point.
“This is a terrible incident with Ruby,” Trump said on the radio before his visit. Trump also said he would like Garcia’s family there if they want to be there.
“Let Ruby’s family members and everyone else know that we’d like to say hello to them,” Trump told Justin Barclay on his radio show.
DailyMail.com continued the campaign to see if contact had been made with Garcia’s family.
Trump will speak in New York on March 28. The ex-president travels to Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday. Trump said immigration is the No. 1 issue in the 2024 election. His event in Michigan on April 2 focuses on the border
Last month, Trump met with Laken Riley’s family and friends in Georgia. Riley became a symbol of the border crisis after an immigrant in the US illegally was charged with murder.
Trump has focused on spotlighting illegal immigration and crime as he runs for a second term in the White House.
The ex-president on Monday called immigration “the number one issue” in the 2024 election.
During his radio interview, Trump stated that countries “all over the world” are emptying their prisons and “putting them in our country.”
It is the latest in a series of claims he has made during meetings and interviews.
Trump argued Monday that crime has declined in other countries as criminals flock to the U.S. and criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the border.
The Biden campaign has pre-empted Trump’s visit to Michigan, arguing that the ex-president helped destroy the bipartisan immigration deal negotiated in Congress to address the border.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was charged with the murder of Laken Riley, takes a booking photo via the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office
The president’s campaign touted that the bill would have created an emergency temporary authority to allow the president to “close the border” when there are an especially high number of asylum seekers and add 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection personnel , but Trump encouraged Republicans to reject it and call it weak.
Trump will also go to Green Bay, Wisconsin, for a campaign rally on Tuesday after his stop in Michigan.