Local recruitment activists and Democrats detested his remarks as former president Donald Trump traveled to Grand Rapids to condemn President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and point out that they were to blame for an increase in crime.
Not far from the DeVos Place Convention Center, where Trump held his function, Movimiento Cosecha Grand Rapids held a pro-immigrant rally at Rosa Parks Circle city.
A few dozen people attended the protest, which started around 1 p. m. Organizers displayed a signal that said” End home isolation, Michigan welcomes immigrants, Permanent safety, dignity &, respect”. Attendees carried signs that said things like” No one is illegal”, and” Dignity for undocumented immigrants”.
In both English and Spanish, the speech, Gemma, called for Michigan to challenge driver’s licenses irrespective of immigration position, saying that is the organization’s key work right now.
Ruby Garcia was observed setting a moment of silence during the event.
” Thank you for remembering a young life that was taken from our community too quickly,” Gemma said.
Authorities claim that Brandon Ortiz- Vite killed Garcia. The homicide case was allegedly the result of domestic abuse, according to the Kent County prosecutor. Organiz-Vite immigrated to the United States illegally as a child and spent years there before joining the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump took credit for deporting Ortiz-Vito in 2020 after his DACA status expired in 2019. Ortiz- Vite later returned to the U. S. illegally, though it’s unclear exactly when.
Gemma condemned those who used Garcia’s death to reinforce anti- immigrant sentiments.
” The candidate, now- ex- President Trump, comes to our city to enhance the anti- immigrant rhetoric and the hate to our community”, she said. ” It is a tragic event where a young life was lost, allegedly killed by an immigrant, does not represent our community. What we need to hear and represents our community is one incident in the thousands and millions of immigrants who come here to do the jobs that nobody else does in this country.
” As human beings, as people, that we’re here to contribute to this society”, she continued. ” That we demand that people look at us as a human being, as a person, that contributes with labor, with our consumption, with our taxes, with everything that the immigrant community represents”.
Kent County Commissioner Ivan Diaz, a Democrat, was at the rally to support the immigrant community.
” Unfortunately, we have seen that many people in elected offices, in those aspiring to political office, are taking advantage of a tragedy here in the Grand Rapids area to advance their political interests”, Diaz said.
Demonstrators marched through downtown Grand Rapids to the convention center after Gemma’s speech, where they chanted “pro-immigrant” chants across the street from Trump supporters.
” We’re Christians, we’re Catholic, we believe that everyone is equal in God’s eyes”, Catherine Kleinebreile of metro Grand Rapids, who demonstrated with the pro- immigrant group, said. ” We’re all from somewhere else. Our ancestors, unless we’re Native American, and I’m not … our ancestors came from somewhere else. And we were immigrants at one point, and some of us were refugees, I assume, at one point. And at that time, the United States was open to having people come, and now they are n’t so much. So we want to return to the way it was.
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS: TRUMP IS ‘ ABOUT DIVISION ‘
Three Democratic lawmakers from Michigan held a press conference on Tuesday morning to discuss Trump’s divisiveness.
Let me just begin today by really highlighting the terrible tragedy surrounding Ruby Garcia’s passing. And so is every life taken by violence, including domestic violence, regardless of who commits the crime. Period”, U. S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said. ” But unfortunately, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are hell- bent on exploiting Ruby’s death for their own politics. Frankly, I think it’s shameful”.
” As Trump goes, so go Michigan Republicans. From making the claim that the men’s basketball team from Gonzaga was a group of immigrants, to callingously referring to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in reference to Gaza, to trying to justify Ruby Garcia’s death as immigration and fear rather than domestic violence. According to state Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids, Donald Trump is always about division rather than unity. He criticized Trump’s position on abortion and his policies that” created incentives to ship Michigan manufacturing jobs overseas.”
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of southeastern Michigan claimed that Donald Trump is coming to Grand Rapids to do what he does best: divide, distract, and fearmonger instead of taking action to address real issues that matter to our country.
Stabenow attributed the failure of a bipartisan proposal to border security to Trump in February.
Senate Democrats and Republicans” could not be seen coming together for months to come up with a tough border security bill, the first bipartisan bill in 20 years. And we had the votes to pass it, right up until the last minute”, Stabenow said. Trump then decided not to allow him to pass it because he believes the border’s chaos will benefit his campaign. So he persuaded the MAGA Republicans to “kill the bill”
