Former President Trump highlighted the killing of Ruby Garcia during a campaign rally in Michigan on Tuesday, where he used violent rhetoric to criticize President Biden’s border policies.
Why it matters: Trump said at a news conference that he had spoken with her family about the shooting that authorities said was carried out by someone who had been in the US illegally, but her sister said that did not happen.
- “He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoken with us, and misinforming people on live TV,” Mavi Garcia said told local news station Target 8.
Driving the news: “She lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people,” Trump, speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the 25-year-old was shot last month, said.
- “I spoke to some of her family.”
- A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment on Mavi Garcia’s remarks.
Zoom in: Mavi Garcia told Target 8 that “it was shocking” and she criticized Trump and other lawmakers who have made her sister’s death political.
- “It’s always been about illegal immigrants,” she said.
- “Nobody really speaks about when Americans do heinous crimes, and it’s kind of shocking why he would just bring up illegals. What about Americans who do heinous crimes like that?”
The big picture: Trump has zeroed in on immigration during his 2024 presidential campaign and he used inflammatory rhetoric on Tuesday to criticize Biden’s handling of the southern border.
- He accused Biden of creating a “blood bath” at the southern border and he called immigrants illegally in the US “animals
- Trump also again highlighted the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, which was allegedly carried out by a man who was in the country illegally.
Go deeper: Inside Trump’s plans to deport millions from the US
