Trump to make campaign stop in Grand Rapids next week

Republican former President Donald Trump is making a stop in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, his second campaign visit in Michigan in the 2024 election year.

Trump said his remarks at the Grand Rapids Convention Center will focus on "Biden's border bloodbath." The visit comes days after police said a man who had been deported to Mexico in 2020 killed his partner and left her on the side of an expressway Friday in Grand Rapids.

Trump made explicit the link between his upcoming visit and the west Michigan murder case, posting on his Truth Social social media site on Thursday night links to stories in the New York Post and other publications about the illegal immigrant suspect and his deportation.

"Joe Biden's Violent Criminal Illegals are invading backyards and communities across Michigan resulting in death, destruction, and chaos," a press release announcing the visit said.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes criticized Trump’s border policy theme, arguing it was “MAGA Republicans” in Congress that snarled a sensible border deal.

“Donald Trump has lied to Michiganders' faces on every visit, and this time will be no different,” Barnes said in a statement.

Trump's most recent visit to Michigan came ahead of the Feb. 27 presidential primary, when he stopped at the Oakland County International Airport to rally supporters.

The Great Lakes state is expected to be key in Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden's battle for re-election. Trump won the swing state in 2016 by about 10,000 votes, and Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 51%-48%, a roughly 154,000-vote margin.

Republicans in Michigan have heightened their rhetoric condemning undocumented immigration in recent months in the state that shares a border with Canada, even more so after a 25-year-old Mexican citizen this week was accused in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend in Grand Rapids.

Police arrested Brandon Ortiz-Vite on Sunday in connection with the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia, whose body was found Friday night on the shoulder of US-131. Federal officials said Ortiz-Vite had been deported to Mexico in 2020.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra underscored the theme in a statement.

“West Michigan suburban families are now facing the fact that the worst issues of the Southern Border have now made their way into our backyard. This is now the second murder by an illegal immigrant in the last year in Kent County. One is a tragedy, two is a trend," Hoekstra said.

"... President Trump deported this man back in 2020 and somehow he got back into the country. It’s unacceptable."

Staff Writer Craig Mauger contributed.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com