GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. >> The sister of the young Michigan woman whose killing has become the latest flashpoint for Republicans on illegal immigration is pushing back on former President Donald Trump, criticizing him for using her sister’s death to score political points and contradicting his claims that he contacted the family.

At an event in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday, Trump described Ruby Garcia, 25, and her killing at length. The man charged with her death was in the United States unlawfully, according to immigration officials, something that Trump seized on in his remarks to describe Garcia as a “beautiful young woman who was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal.” He also told the crowd that he had spoken to her family.

But that wasn’t true, the sister, Mavi Garcia, said, adding that family members were upset by what they heard while watching the remarks in real time.

“He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us and misinforming people on live TV,” Mavi Garcia, who has acted as a spokesperson for her family, said in an interview with WOOD-TV8, the NBC affiliate for west Michigan.

She faulted Trump for framing her sister’s death as a border issue.

“It’s always been about illegal immigrants,” she told the news station, adding, “What about Americans who do heinous crimes like this?”.

At the event, a Trump spokesperson could not identify who the former president had spoken with in the Garcia family. The campaign has not clarified since.

“The mainstream media is abhorrent for spending more time nitpicking President Trump’s words and obsessing over his ‘rhetoric’ than writing about the heinous crimes committed by Joe Biden’s illegal immigrants, like the one who killed Ruby Garcia,” said Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement.

— News service reports