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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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 U.S 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.
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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."
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.
Republican Senate candidate in Michigan Mike Rogers, a former FBI special agent who later served in Congress and chaired the House Homeland Security committee, was among the GOP politicians joining Trump 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.
An average of the most recent polls in Michigan compiled by Real Clear Politics indicates Trump with a slight edge over Biden.
Fox News' Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
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