(WASHINGTON) — Despite what Donald Trump said at a Michigan event on Tuesday, the family of homicide victim Ruby Garcia told ABC News that the former president has not spoken to them.
“I can confirm and assure you he did not speak with me or my immediate family,” Mavi Garcia, Ruby Garcia’s sister, told ABC’s Rachel Scott.
The Trump campaign declined to comment on the record about the contradiction, but sources insisted they don’t share details of who they spoke with and what was said during private meetings unless given explicit permission by the families involved.
Trump on Tuesday in Grand Rapids used his speech to highlight Garcia’s recent death as he attacked immigrants who enter the country illegally.
The suspected killer entered the country illegally from Mexico, according to border officials.
Trump called Garcia, who was 25, a “beautiful young woman [who] was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal.”
He directly blamed President Joe Biden for the death of Garcia, claiming the suspect was deported under his administration but then was let back into the country under Biden.
But an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said in a statement that the suspect actually re-entered the U.S. after deportation “at an unknown date and location.”
Trump also said on Tuesday that he had spoken with some of Garcia’s family: “They said she had just the most contagious laughter and when she walked into a room, she lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people.”
Oddly, Trump appeared to be going back and forth between saying Garcia was 25 years old and 17 years old.
ABC News’ Quinn Owen contributed to this report.
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