The family of Ruby Garcia, a woman who was murdered by an undocumented migrant, slammed Donald Trump on Tuesday for falsely claiming that he reached out to them after her death.
“She lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people,” Trump said at a campaign event in Michigan. “I spoke to some of her family.”
But, Ruby’s sister Mavi Garcia, told local NBC affiliate, WFLA that neither Trump nor anybody from his campaign contacted her or anybody in her immediate family.
“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,” Garcia said. “It was shocking. I kind of stopped watching it. I’d only seen up to that, after I heard a couple of misinformations he said, I just stopped watching it.”
25-year-old Ruby Garcia was found dead on the side of highway U.S. 131 in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 22. She had been shot multiple times.
A Mexican national name Brandon Ortiz-Vite, also 25, confessed to killing her and dumping her body on the side of the road. They were reportedly in a relationship, but Mavi said they were just friends and that the things hadn’t gotten that far.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Ortiz-Vite is in the United States illegally after he was deported back to Mexico in 2020.
Ortiz-Vite is facing five charges, including felony murder and carjacking.
Mavi also slammed Trump and other lawmakers for politicizing her sister’s death.
“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 former president also face criticism for not knowing Ruby’s age.
“On March 22nd, he shot 17-year-old Ruby, actually, she was a beautiful, beautiful young woman. Ruby Garcia,” Trump said. As previously mentioned, Garcia was 25.
