Amid ongoing tension over the handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said during a speech along the campaign trail in Michigan that “the suburban housewives actually like Donald Trump” and that they should vote for him to keep them safe from migrants “crawling through their windows.”
Trump met with members of local law enforcement in Grand Rapids, where the former president focused much of his speech on President Joe Biden and the southern border, as he accused Biden of allowing a “bloodbath” that was “destroying the country.”
Immigration is among the top issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with polls reflecting doubt over Biden’s border policies, as Trump has pledged tougher to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in U.S. history.
Biden continues to face bipartisan criticism on the issue, as the country experiences heightened levels of migrant border crossings. There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Republicans say the uptick in migrants is a direct result of Biden’s border policies, which, they argue, incentivize illegal immigration. Other experts have said various factors, including political and financial instability in some Central American countries, drive migration to the U.S.
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During his speech on Tuesday, Trump pointed to crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, adding that suburban housewives “actually like” Trump because he will keep them safe.
“The suburban housewives actually like Donald Trump, you know why, because I’m the one who’s gonna keep them safe … If you don’t want illegal aliens crawling through your windows and ransacking your drawers, then you must vote for .. the fact that we have to throw crooked Joe Biden out of office,” Trump said.
Newsweek has reached out to the campaigns of Trump and Biden via email for comment on Tuesday.
FBI statistics show overall violent crime dropped again in the U.S. last year, and in Michigan, violent crime hit a three-year low in 2022. Trump’s speech, however, had focused on the killing of Ruby Garcia, 25, a Michigan woman who was found dead on the side of a Grand Rapids highway on March 22.
Police said she was in a romantic relationship with the suspect, Brandon Ortiz-Vite. He told police he shot Garcia multiple times during an argument before dropping her body on the side of the road, authorities said. Ortiz-Vite is a citizen of Mexico and had previously been deported following a drunken-driving arrest, according to police.
This is not the first time Trump has turned to rhetoric when discussing migrants, as he made similarly disparaging comments in early March at a rally in Georgia.
“The suburban—they always say, ‘suburban housewives.’ They want something that’s very important: security. They don’t want illegal immigrants coming into our country. They don’t want illegal immigrants knocking on their front door and saying, ‘I’m going to use your kitchen and I’m gonna use your bedroom and there’s not a damn thing …’ — and that’s the nice ones, OK? That’s the nice ones,” Trump said in Georgia.
Ahead of Trump’s Michigan speech, the Biden campaign noted the continued language and rhetoric used by Trump in regards to the border, which has ramped up in recent months.
“Tomorrow, Donald Trump is coming to Grand Rapids where he is expected to once again try to politicize a tragedy and sow hate and division to hide from his own record of failing Michiganders,” Alyssa Bradley, the Biden campaign’s Michigan communications director, told the Associated Press.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.