Former President Trump campaigned in the Wisconsin town of Prairie du Chien on Saturday, making migrant crime a core part of his speech after a rape suspect was arrested in the small, rural community.
The rally, which was supposed to take place outside, but was moved indoors due to a Secret Service staffing shortage, focused on migrant crime. During the speech, Trump referenced the arrest of assault suspect Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26, who is an alleged member of Venezuela’s violent Tren de Aragua migrant gang.
Earlier this month, Zarate was charged with sexual assault, battery, strangulation and suffocation, in addition to false imprisonment, child abuse and disorderly conduct, according to WXOW.
The suspect, who is accused of sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter “under particularly brutal circumstances,” was arrested in Prairie du Chien on Sept. 6.
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Trump discussed the arrest of Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate at his rally in Wisconsin. (Getty Images / Crawford County Jail)
“Just this month, right here in this beautiful town, police arrested an illegal alien member of a savage Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Agua,” Trump described. “These are really bad ones. This vile monster was charged with holding a mother and daughter captive against their will and sexually assaulting them again and again and again.”
The Republican presidential candidate also took aim at his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been criticized for her border policies.
“This animal crossed Kamala’s wide open border, along with hundreds of thousands of others that are worse than him, that are worse than him,” Trump continued. “He was arrested and released in the sanctuary city of Minneapolis.”
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Former President Republican presidential candidate Trump delivers remarks at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Saturday. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
“And by the way, I’m going to end all sanctuary cities immediately upon taking over,” he added.
Last week, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R–Wis., told Fox News Digital that the community of Prairie du Chien was shaken by the arrest. Van Orden’s grandchildren live less than a mile away from the house where the mother and daughter were abused.
“Why should a town of 5,500 people… be afraid of letting their kids play in their front yard?” the politician said. “It wasn’t like this three years ago.”
Van Orden noted that Wisconsin’s farming industries rely on migrant labor, but stressed the need to enact immigration reform for the sake of public safety.
People wait in line at sunrise ahead of former President Trump’s campaign event at the Prairie Du Chien Area Arts Center in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Saturday. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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“I’ve been to the border three times….They let a guy in the country with gang tattoos, and you get a medical screening before you come over the border. They give them a medical exam, because they don’t want people coming over with tuberculosis,” the Republican congressman said incredulously.
Fox News Digital’s Christina Coulter contributed to this report.