Ruby Garcia, the 25-year-old woman whom he murdered with an illegal handgun, was found on the roadway of U.S. 131 with gunshot wounds.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, a 27-year-old illegal alien who has been charged and convicted in the murder of Michigander Ruby Garcia in March 2024, is suing President Trump and demanding full citizenship, $75.5 million, and an apology from the president after Trump used his case as a talking point in the 2024 campaign.
Ruby Garcia, the 25-year-old woman whom he murdered with an illegal handgun, was found on the roadway of U.S. 131 with gunshot wounds. Ortiz-Vite fled in her car but was arrested two days later, after which he confessed to the crime. Ortiz-Vite had originally entered the country illegally but was protected from deportation under an Obama-era policy. He was subsequently deported by the Trump administration in 2020 after he was arrested for driving without a license, breaking and entering, and operating while intoxicated. The alien later returned under the Biden administration.
According to Ortiz-Vite, what seemingly prompted his lawsuit against Trump was an incident that occurred during Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. During a stop in the contentious Rust Belt state, Trump displayed Ortiz-Vite's mugshot during a Grand Rapids campaign stop as an example of what he referred to as a border policy failure of the Biden administration. Ortiz-Vite, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, bemoaned in his handwritten filing that Americans would now see him as a murderer.
"It all became clear to me when I first met with my court-appointed attorneys. They explained how my case had gotten blown out of (proportion) and was now a high-profile case!" Ortiz-Vite wrote. "The shock in their eyes and the tears from mine was a reaction to my realization that I was living everyone's worst nightmare! To be publicly infamous. A target! To the United States of America. From here, everything went downhill. I was now labeled a cold-blooded murderer in the eyes of the people of this nation."
Ortiz-Vite also proclaimed he was humiliated by the president's words and said race played a factor, per Fox News.
"I was put into a category. Who I was as a person no longer mattered! What only mattered was my race," Ortiz-Vite wrote. "My case and immigration status! Once again, it belittled me, shattered my dignity and what I was as a person."
As stated earlier, Ortiz-Vite had confessed to the murder of Garcia. His lawsuit would be unlikely to be successful against a private citizen, much less the president, Grand Rapids attorney and former federal prosecutor Matthew Borgula told MLive.
"Based on my experience, I do not think this lawsuit is going anywhere," Grand Rapids attorney and former federal prosecutor Matthew Borgula told MLive.
"Also, presidential immunity covers official acts, and campaign statements can fall outside it — but this suit fails for more basic reasons. The statements were substantially true, and being publicly embarrassed by a politician isn't a constitutional violation. This case should end before it begins."
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