Donald Trump escalated his inflammatory rhetoric on immigration on Tuesday, accusing President Biden of unleashing a “bloodbath” on the US-Mexico border.
Trump has previously accused immigrants of “poisoning the country's blood” and pledged to launch the largest deportation operation in the country's history if he wins a second term. His latest comments came while campaigning in two Midwestern swing states likely to be crucial to the outcome of the 2024 election.
In Michigan, he referred to immigrants in the United States illegally and suspected of crimes as “animals,” using dehumanizing language and warning those who study extremism of the increased risk of violence.
“Every town is now a border town, because Joe Biden brought carnage, chaos, and murder from around the world and delivered it right into our backyards,” Trump said in Grand Rapids, where he stood surrounded by uniformed law enforcement officers. A line of flags.
While violent crime has declined, according to the FBI, Trump and other Republicans have seized on several high-profile crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in the United States illegally. Polls indicate that many likely voters are concerned about the impact of border crossings.
Trump continued to raise this topic on Tuesday evening at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, while the state was holding its presidential primary elections. Trump accused rogue nations of “pushing migrants across our wide-open borders” and “sending prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, the mentally ill, and terrorists” — though there is no evidence any nation is involved in this kind of coordinated effort.
Trump on Tuesday focused on the killing of Ruby Garcia, a Michigan woman who was found dead on March 22 on the side of a Grand Rapids freeway. Police say she was in a romantic relationship with suspect Brandon Ortiz Feit. He told police he shot her several times during an argument before dropping her body on the side of the road and driving off in the red Mazda.
Trump incorrectly referred to 25-year-old Garcia as 17 years old.
Authorities say Ortiz-Vite is a Mexican citizen and was previously deported after being arrested for drunk driving. He does not have an attorney listed in court records.
Garcia's sister, Mavi, disputed Trump's assertion on Tuesday that he had spoken to her family members, according to FOX 17.
“No, he didn't talk to us,” FOX 17 said she told them in a text message and declined to comment further.
She pleaded on Facebook last week for journalists to stop politicizing her sister's story, and on Tuesday asked for privacy, saying she just wanted to “serve justice” and “leave her alone.”
Trump again mentioned the killing of Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia. Charges have been filed against a Venezuelan man who officials say entered the United States illegally. Riley's family attended Trump's rally in Georgia last month and met him backstage.
Trump referred to the suspect in Riley's death as an “illegal alien animal.”
“Democrats say, 'Please don't call them animals. They're humans.' I said, 'No, they're not humans. They're not humans. They're animals.'
Violent crimes fell again in the United States last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike, FBI statistics show. In Michigan, violent crime reached a three-year low in 2022, according to the latest data available. Crime rates have also declined in Detroit, Michigan's largest city, with the lowest number of homicides last year since 1966.
Top Republicans from across Michigan packed the convention hall in downtown Grand Rapids to hear Trump speak in a district he won in 2016 but lost to Biden in 2020. Outside the event center, more than 100 of his supporters stood in the cold rain to line the street. Where Trump's motorcade was expected to pass.
In a nearby park, a small group advocating for immigration reform gathered to observe a moment of silence for Garcia while holding signs that read “No Man Is Illegal” and “Michigan Welcomes Immigrants.”
In Green Bay, some supporters braved three hours of falling snow to enter the venue.
The Biden campaign — which had been criticizing Trump for his role in killing a bipartisan border deal that would have added more than 1,500 Customs and Border Protection agents, among other restrictions on immigration — pre-empted the rhetoric by accusing Trump of politicizing the woman's death.
“Tomorrow, Donald Trump will come to Grand Rapids, where he is expected to once again try to politicize a tragedy and sow hatred and division to hide from his own record of failure in Michigan,” said Alyssa Bradley, communications director for the Biden campaign in Michigan.
Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday that there is a “real problem at our southern border” and that “it's really important that Congress and the president solve the problem.”
“There was a solution on the table. It was actually the former president who encouraged Republicans to move away from getting this done,” Whitmer said. “I don’t have a lot of tolerance for political points when they continue to put our economy and, to some extent, our people at risk.” “We also saw what's happening in Grand Rapids recently.”
Associated Press writer Cappelletti reported from Grand Rapids, Gomez-Lecon from Green Bay and Colvin from New York. AP writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
