Murdered Woman's Sister Shocked by Trump Remarks

Mavi Garcia says he was 'misinforming' people with claim to have spoken to family
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 3, 2024 7:05 PM CDT
Murdered Woman's Sister Says Trump Never Called Family
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tuesday, April 2, 2024.   (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

At a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday, Donald Trump described local woman Ruby Garcia as a "beautiful young woman who was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal." He added, "When she walked into a room, she lit up that room and I've heard that from so many people. I spoke to some of her family." Garcia's sister, however, said nobody in the immediate family spoke to Trump or his campaign and she was shocked by the remark, reports the New York Times.

  • "He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us, and misinforming people on live TV," Mavi Garcia told WOOD-TV. She said she stopped watching Trump's speech after hearing a "couple of misinformations."

  • Mavi Garcia said she was angry about her sister's death being politicized by Trump and others. "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?"
  • Ruby Garcia, 25, was killed on March 22. WOOD-TV reports that court records show that Brandon Ortiz-Vite, a 25-year-old Mexican citizen who was in the country illegally, admitted killing her after an argument and dumping her body along a highway. Police say Garcia and Ortiz-Vite were romantically involved, although her sister says things hadn't reached that stage.
  • Ortiz-Vite, who is facing charges including felony murder, first came to the US illegally as a child. According to immigration records, his DACA status expired in May 2019, NBC News reports. He was arrested on drunken driving charges in August 2020 and was deported the following month.
  • In his speech Tuesday, Trump said his administration threw Ortiz-Vite "out of the country and crooked Joe Biden took him back and let him back in and let him stay in and he viciously killed Ruby," the AP reports. Immigration officials, however, say the suspect returned to the US at an "unknown date and location," meaning he could have entered during the final months of the Trump administration.
  • The Trump campaign did not respond to questions from multiple outlets about whether Trump spoke to any Garcia family members. On Monday, he told Michigan radio host Justin Barclay that he would "love" to have the family at the rally. The AP reports that Trump asked Barclay to coordinate with the family, but the host said Tuesday that he had not been in contact with them. The Times reports that ahead of the rally, Trump's campaign distributed packets with photos of Garcia and others murdered by people who were in the US illegally.
(More Donald Trump stories.)

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