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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Donald Trump is turning up the volume as he accuses President Biden of failing to protect Americans from violent crime that the former president says is being committed by illegal immigrants and deadly drugs pouring over the nation’s southern border with Mexico.
During a campaign event Tuesday in this western Michigan city, Trump fired numerous salvos at his successor in the White House, arguing that “under Crooked Joe Biden, every state is now a border state.”
The former president’s stop came in the wake of the March 22 murder of Ruby Garcia, a 25-year-old woman allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant who had been deported to Mexico in 2020 but returned to the U.S. Garcia’s death – her body was discovered alongside a road in Grand Rapids – is dominating local conservative talk radio and social media.
Pointing to Garcia’s death, Trump emphasized that “a beautiful young woman was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal. Under the Trump administration, this monster had been deported, thrown out of the country.”
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Brandon Ortiz-Vite, who is currently being held at the Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids, is being charged with murder and other crimes after the body of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was discovered on U.S. 131 in downtown Grand Rapids and identified by investigators. (Mavi Garcia, Kent County Jail)
Police say Garcia was in a romantic relationship with the suspect, Brandon Ortiz-Vite, who told authorities he shot her multiple times.
Trump blamed Biden for allowing Ortiz-Vite back into the country, and he accused the president of allowing “a border bloodbath, and it’s destroying our country.”
“It’s going to end on the day that I take office, which will be January 20,” said Trump, who has pledged to launch the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history if elected in November.
PREVIOUSLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH MURDER OF 25-YEAR OLD MICHIGAN WOMAN
Standing behind Trump as he spoke was a group of law enforcement officials and Republican politicians, who joined the former president for a roundtable discussion minutes earlier.
Before Trump arrived in Michigan, the Republican National Committee fired up a new website, BidenBloodbath.com, which they argue is dedicated to “highlighting the horrors of Biden Migrant Crime.”
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, gives an address on crime and border security during a stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 2, 2024 (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The showcasing of the word “bloodbath” by Trump and the RNC appeared to be a move to lean into a controversy the former president sparked when he used the word during a rally last month in Ohio.
Critics suggested that Trump was warning of political violence if he didn’t win November’s election, but the former president and his allies said he was taken out of context.
“They tried to use that term incorrectly on me two weeks ago,” Trump said on Tuesday, claiming “it’s all about misinformation.”
Ahead of Trump’s visit to Grand Rapids, Biden campaign communications director in Michigan Alyssa Bradley charged that the former president would “once again try to politicize a tragedy and sow hate and division.”
And Biden’s campaign reiterated their charge that Trump tanked the bipartisan border security bill that they say would have allowed the president to “shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”
“It was Donald Trump who ordered his MAGA allies to kill it because he thinks it helps him politically – he doesn’t actually care about border security,” Biden’s campaign claimed.
While Trump was in Grand Rapids, the Democratic National Committee went up with billboards in the city charging “Donald Trump broke the border.”
The Biden campaign also spotlighted in a release “violent crime is down nationally – in Detroit, homicides hit a 57 year record low in 2023.”
Illegal immigration and border security have long been top of mind for Republican voters, and GOP leaders for over three years have heavily criticized Biden and his administration over the surge in border crossings by migrants. The president’s approval rating on handling the border and immigration remains deeply underwater.
VideoFormer Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican Senate candidate in Michigan backed by Trump and a one-time FBI special agent who later chaired the House Intelligence Committee, was among the GOP politicians joining the former president in Grand Rapids.
Rogers, in a Fox News Digital interview at the event, argued that “a weak and porous southern border” is fueling crime in his state.
After his stop in Michigan, Trump headed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to headline a rally. Michigan and Wisconsin were two of the six crucial battleground states that Biden narrowly edged Trump to win the White House four years ago.
But an average of the most recent polls in Michigan compiled by Real Clear Politics indicates Trump with a slight edge over Biden.
“You win Michigan,” Trump told the crowd, “you win the election.”
Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
