Trump angers Ruby Garcia’s family members, who dispute he spoke to them

The sister of Ruby Garcia, a woman murdered last month in Michigan, said she was shocked to hear former President Trump claim that he spoke with her family when referencing her sister’s killing in remarks about immigration. 

“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, the sister of Ruby, told WOOD-TV in Michigan Tuesday. 

WOOD-TV is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill. 

Speaking from Grand Rapids, Mich., Tuesday, Trump brought up the killing of Garcia, whom he described as a “beautiful young woman [who] was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal,” and vowed justice for her killer. 

“Now, Ruby’s loved ones and community are left grieving for this incredible young woman remembering what they called her … they said she had just this most contagious laughter and when she walked into a room, she lit up that room,” he said. “And I’ve heard that from so many people, I spoke to some of her family.” 

Mavi said neither Trump nor his campaign reached out to her or anyone else in her immediate family, noting she would have known if he had reached out to her family members, WOOD-TV reported. 

“It was shocking. I kind of stopped watching it; I’d only seen up to that, after I heard a couple of misinformation he said, I just stopped watching it,” Mavi told WOOD-TV. 

Garcia, 25, was found dead on the side of a highway in Grand Rapids on March 22, Michigan State Police said. Authorities later arrested Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, whom they say was in a romantic relationship with Garcia. Mavi pushed back on the police’s assertion about their relationship, claiming the two were friends, WOOD-TV reported. 

Ortiz-Vite told police he got into an argument with Garcia and shot her multiple times before dumping her body on the side of the road, The Associated Press reported.

Ortiz-Vite, a citizen of Mexico, came to the U.S. illegally as a child, but was protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told The Hill.

His DACA status expired in 2019, and upon being arrested on local charges in 2020, he was ordered back to Mexico, but he reentered the U.S. without inspection at some point afterward, the spokesperson added. 

Mavi Garcia said she is upset Trump and others are attempting to politicize her sister’s death, remarking, “It’s always been about illegal immigrants.”

“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?” she said. “The focus should be on my sister right now, who she was in life. I want people to remember who she was in life.”

The Hill attempted to reach Garcia’s family. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The former president’s comments come after Trump levied a swath of attacks against President Biden’s border policies during remarks from Michigan Tuesday; he resurrected the term “bloodbath,” describing what he believes is a country overrun by migrants. 

“But it’s a border bloodbath, and it’s destroying our country, and it’s a very bad thing happening. It’s going to end on the day that I take office,” the former president said vowing to carry out the largest deportation effort in history. 

The former president said he plans “to stop the plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of our American suburbs, cities and towns” and vowed to end so-called sanctuary cities. 

Trump first used the “bloodbath” term last month during a rally in Ohio while he warned China against attempting to open factories in Mexico to sell cars to the United States. Critics suggested the former president was warning of political violence, while Trump and allies said his words were being taken out of context.