Minutes before taking the stage for the first presidential debate on Thursday, Donald Trump received a call from the mother of Joselyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old who was killed this month in Houston allegedly by two Venezuelans living illegally in the U.S.
Victoria Galvan, a friend of the family who witnessed the call, told Reuters that the mother, Alexis Nungare, was responding to a voicemail Trump left her the day after she attended her daughter’s funeral.
Nungare’s body was found in a drain near his home on June 17 after his attackers allegedly took him under a bridge, tied him up, removed his pants and strangled him, according to police and prosecutors.
The suspects — Johan José Martínez Rangel, 22, and Franklin José Pena Ramos, 26 — were detained by U.S. border authorities in Texas earlier this year but were released pending a court appearance.
During the debate, Trump spoke about the Nungare case and the phone call and attacked Biden over his immigration policies, accusing the Democrat of allowing murderers and rapists to enter the country.
“Too many young women have been murdered by the very people they allow to come across our border,” Trump said.
“These killers are coming into our country and raping and killing women. And that’s a horrible thing.”
Referring to the Nungare case he said, “What has happened is terrible… We have now truly become an uncivilised country.”
Trump’s attacks stem from a well-understood strategy he has used repeatedly since he first ran for president in 2015, portraying immigrants who cross the southern border illegally as violent criminals.
He typically focuses on young, usually white, women who were allegedly killed by Hispanic assailants, in order to drive the message home, and avoids cases involving male victims.
His opponents accuse him of exploiting grieving families to push his narrative that foreign-born, often Hispanic, people are part of the invading army.
“Part of what’s going on here is an attempt to stir up xenophobia, hostility, or racial animosity,” said Christopher Federico, a professor of political science and psychology at the University of Minnesota. He added that Trump appears to be playing into racist stereotypes that portray Latino men as a threat to the “perceived purity of white womanhood.”
Studies have generally found there is no evidence that immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Americans, and critics say Trump’s rhetoric reinforces racist assumptions.
Still, polling shows the message resonates with many voters. It is amplified by conservative media, pro-Trump influencers online and sometimes by grieving relatives and friends of the slain women.
Galvan, 27, blamed Biden’s easing of some restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border for Nungaray’s death.
“I think Jocelyn would definitely still be here if President Trump was our president,” Galvan said, adding that she plans to vote in a presidential election for the first time and will support Trump.
Despite the lack of evidence, nearly three-quarters of Republicans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May said immigrants living illegally in the U.S. “are a threat to public safety.”
The well-worn playbook
Trump has attacked Biden for the record number of migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. Immigration is a major concern of voters, especially among conservatives.
In response, Biden accused Trump of urging Republicans to block a bipartisan U.S. Senate bill earlier this year aimed at tightening border security and called Trump’s policies unnecessarily cruel.
“Donald Trump is exploiting the pain and loss of American families for the benefit of one man: Donald Trump,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “His sick and inhumane comments do nothing to make our border more secure and are beneath the office of the President of the United States.”
A digital ad depicting violent crime and criticizing Biden was launched last week in seven battleground states as part of an effort by the conservative group Building America’s Future.
The ad focuses on Rachel Morin — a mother of five who was raped and murdered while jogging near her Maryland home in August 2023 — and her accused killer, an immigrant from El Salvador who had come to the U.S. illegally.
“Joe Biden’s open borders are a nightmare for American women,” a woman’s voice says as the face of Morin’s accused killer is displayed next to Biden’s.
According to Republican strategist Suzanne Del Percio, who has been critical of Trump’s immigration rhetoric, Trump’s approach is reminiscent of the oft-quoted “Willie Horton” ad attacking Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign.
Horton was black, and critics said the ad — which effectively boosted the candidacy of Republican George H. W. Bush — was an attempt to incite race-based fears.
He said, “Trump is saying, ‘We don’t like immigrants and now there’s another terrible reason to dislike them. They’ll come after you and kill you.'”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt said Biden’s border policies have allowed dangerous criminals to enter the U.S. and that Trump wants to help the victims’ families.
“President Trump names them, calls their mothers, and stands with their families, while Joe Biden ignores their suffering and welcomes millions of dangerous criminal illegal immigrants,” Levitt said in a statement.
Trump has used inflammatory language about immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, including saying they are “poisoning the blood” of the country.
Mixed reception
Some victims’ parents have welcomed Trump’s efforts to publicize the brutal killings, while others say he is simply politicizing the deaths of their loved ones.
In 2018, Trump publicized the case of Mollie Tibbetts, when the 20-year-old University of Iowa student was killed by a Mexican immigrant living illegally in the U.S., but Tibbetts’ father at the time criticized Trump for exploiting the tragedy for political gain.
Tibbetts’ mother, Laura Calderwood, told Reuters she believed her daughter’s killer was a disturbed individual, but the killing had no connection to his immigration status.
“It was an anomaly,” said Calderwood, a Democrat who plans to vote for Biden. “There are a lot of illegal immigrants here and they don’t go out and kill people.”
Michelle Root, whose daughter Sarah died in Nebraska in 2016 when her car was hit by a drunk driver who was illegally in the US, told Reuters that when she wrote to then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden to raise awareness about the case, they never responded.
Obama’s personal office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
He said Trump, then a presidential candidate, invited him to meet him before a rally in Omaha. The meeting convinced Root, a lifelong Democrat who had voted for Obama twice, to support Trump.
She said he later called her and asked for permission to mention Sarah’s case when he accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination that summer.
“If he wasn’t there, Sarah wouldn’t have had a voice,” he said.
Rachel Morin’s mother, Patty Morin, became “extremely emotional” when Trump contacted her earlier this month to offer his condolences, her lawyer, Randolph Rice, told Reuters.
“During the 20-minute phone call the President inquired about Rachel and her family and asked how they were doing,” Rice said in an email. “He has not yet received any contact from the Biden administration.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)