Trump expected to highlight murder of Michigan woman in immigration
speech
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[April 02, 2024]
By Tim Reid and Nathan Layne
(Reuters) - Donald Trump is expected to highlight the murder of a young
Michigan woman and the arrest of a suspect who had entered the U.S.
illegally from Mexico in a speech on Tuesday focused on his Democratic
opponent Joe Biden's immigration policies.
The former Republican president, who has posted on his Truth Social
account about the murder of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia in Grand Rapids last
month, is due to make remarks in the city that his campaign has titled
"Biden's border bloodbath." Police say Garcia was shot in her car by
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, who she was dating.
Peter Hoekstra, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party and a Trump
ally, told Reuters he expects Trump to address Garcia's murder in his
speech. Trump's campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump is making the issue of immigrants crossing illegally into the U.S.
from Mexico a centerpiece of his campaign. In recent months his rhetoric
about migrants has become increasingly dehumanizing. He has called them
"vermin" and "animals."
Trump and fellow Republicans have seized on Garcia's murder as an
example of what they claim is Biden's failure to stem the flow of
illegal immigrants into the United States.
Trump accused Biden in a speech in March of engaging in a "conspiracy to
overthrow the United States" through lax security policies that have
allowed millions of migrants to stream across the U.S. border with
Mexico.
Polls show voters in both parties becoming increasingly concerned about
the steady stream of migration.
Biden blames Trump for encouraging Republicans not to pass legislation
in Congress this year that would have beefed up security at the southern
border and introduced new measures aimed at reducing illegal
immigration.
The Biden White House is also considering executive actions to reduce
illegal immigration in the coming year, two U.S. officials and a third
source familiar with the matter told Reuters in February.
"Donald Trump is engaging in extreme rhetoric that promotes division,
hate and violence in our country," Michael Tyler, Biden campaign
communications director, told reporters on Tuesday. "He encourages white
nationalists and cheers on the disgusting behavior of the extreme far
right."
Trump and fellow Republicans have also seized on the case of another
young woman, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who
was allegedly murdered in February by an immigrant who was in the
country illegally and who had been released on parole.
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Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald
Trump gestures to supporters as he hosts a campaign rally at the
Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia, U.S. March 9, 2024.
REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer/File Photo
Trump frequently claims without evidence that migrants have caused a
spike in violent crime in U.S. cities.
TUESDAY'S PRIMARIES
Trump is also set to hold a rally with supporters in Green Bay,
Wisconsin, after his Michigan speech. Michigan and Wisconsin are two
swing states that could determine whether Biden or Trump occupies
the White House next year.
In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by less than one
percentage point, and in Michigan by less than three. Both states,
two of a handful of battlegrounds that will determine November's
election, are expected to be extremely close again this year.
Although both Trump and Biden have mathematically clinched their
presidential nominations, they will be on their party's presidential
primary ballots in Wisconsin on Tuesday.
The Biden team will be watching for protest votes by Democrats angry
over the president's support of Israel in its war against Hamas in
Gaza.
In February's presidential primary in Michigan, a state with a large
Muslim population, Biden easily won the primary but more than
100,000 Democrats voted "uncommitted", instead of for Biden, as a
protest over his Gaza policy.
A similar option is available in Wisconsin on Tuesday, when voters
can opt to mark their ballot for "uninstructed delegation".
The "uncommitted" campaign's goal in Wisconsin is to get 20,682
voters to mark their ballots "uninstructed," Wisconsin's version of
"uncommitted." The number is significant. Biden beat Trump by that
number in the state in 2020.
(Reporting by Tim Reid and Nathan Layne, additional reporting by
Nandita Bose; editing by Ross Colvin and Stephen Coates)
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