Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin continues to downplay the “domestic violence homicide” of Grand Rapids’ Ruby Garcia, refusing to acknowledge her alleged killer’s immigration status.

Slotkin appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on Friday to twist facts about former President Donald Trump’s jaunt to Grand Rapids on Tuesday, when the Don is expected to highlight the negative impacts of the Biden administration’s border policies on West Michigan.

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“Ruby Garcia’s murder is a horrible tragedy. But Donald Trump isn’t coming to Michigan next week out of concern for her – he’s coming to turn her death into a political performance for his own benefit,” Slotkin posted to X with a video of her appearance. “For all his talk about the border, Trump and his allies *blocked* a bipartisan border security bill that *Republicans* wrote.”

Ruby Garcia's murder is a horrible tragedy. But Donald Trump isn't coming to Michigan next week out of concern for her — he's coming to turn her death into a political performance for his own benefit. For all his talk about the border, Trump and his allies *blocked* a bipartisan… pic.twitter.com/b88ygVJ7y7

— Elissa Slotkin (@ElissaSlotkin) March 30, 2024

Brandon Ortiz-Vite was arraigned in the shooting Garcia, 25, multiple times with an illegally purchased handgun before dumping her body on the shoulder of US 131 near downtown Grand Rapids on March 22. Ortiz-Vite was deported by the Trump administration in 2020, but returned during Biden’s tenure.

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He now faces multiple felony charges, including two potential life sentences, after investigators say he confessed to the murder, which has gone largely ignored by Michigan Democrats.

Slotkin finally acknowledged the situation on Friday, but did not make clear Garcia’s alleged killer was in the country illegally, focusing instead on a now dissolved border deal crafted by a handful of senators and the White House many conservatives have criticized for not going far enough.

Slotkin on Friday framed Trump as the obstacle to progress on securing the border, and suggested the Grand Rapids murder is simply one of many domestic violence incidents in the region.

“It’s a terrible, horrible, gruesome death on top of a number of domestic violence incidents we’re having in that area,” she told Blitzer. “You have a terrible murder of a young woman, then you have a former president coming in saying ‘it’s all about the border and border security,’ but he won’t let us actually deal with the border,” she said.

“Him and his allies, including people I’m running against, are using it as a political issue, not that they care for this particular woman,” Slotkin said.

Slotkin did not discuss existing powers President Biden can leverage to address the years-long border invasion, or her own party’s refusal to consider reforms in Michigan.

Weeks before Garcia’s murder, Michigan Republicans reignited a push to ban sanctuary jurisdictions in Michigan, which receive federal law enforcement funding despite policies that protect and attract illegal immigrants.

The intent is to end incentives that create the type of overwhelming illegal immigration that is bankrupting sanctuary cities like Chicago, Denver and New York. The legislation, Senate bills 724 and 725, are also aimed at avoiding “preventable violence” that comes with it, bill sponsors Sens. Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton, and Jonathan Lindsey, R-Allen, wrote in a letter to Sen. Stephanie Chang, the Democratic chair of the Senate Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee.

Chang has refused to hold a hearing on the legislation, while Democrats in the lower chamber have blocked similar legislation from state Rep. Andrew Fink, R-Adams Township.

“By refusing to enforce immigration laws, these rouge communities are compromising our national security and putting the safety of Michigan residents and the financial stability of our entire state at risk,” Hoitenga said earlier this month. “The Michigan Legislature has a duty to act in a bipartisan manner to keep our communities safe from the preventable violence and rampant drug trafficking streaming across Joe Biden’s open borders.”

Grand Rapids is in Kent County, one of five governments in Michigan The Center for Immigration Studies identifies as having adopted sanctuary policies, though county officials dispute the “sanctuary” designation.

The anti-sanctuary bills are one piece of a Strong Borders, Safer Communities plan introduced by Senate Republicans in February that also includes increased penalties for fentanyl traffickers, and a call on the president and Congress to “immediately and fully resolve” the border crisis.

U.S. Border Patrol ended 2023 with about 302,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in just the month of December – the highest monthly total ever, according to ABC News.

An October report from the House Committee on Homeland Security shows in Fiscal Year 2023, the total was 2.4 million encounters on the southwest border, 3.2 million nationwide, including at least 169 on the terrorist watch list.

A Gallop poll from late February found 55% of Americans believe the country’s vital interests are critically threatened by the large numbers of illegal immigrants entering the country, putting it “at the top” of the country’s “most important problem” list.