Former President Trump campaigned in the town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on Saturday, and put immigration crime at the center of his speech following the arrest of a rape suspect in the small rural community.
The rally was scheduled to be held outdoors but was moved indoors due to Secret Service staffing shortages and focused on immigration crimes. In his speech, President Trump mentioned the arrest of assault suspect Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26. Torren de Aragua, a violent migrant gang in Venezuela;
Zarate was charged earlier this month with false imprisonment, child abuse and disorderly conduct, as well as sexual assault, assault, strangulation and suffocation, according to WXOW.
The suspect was arrested in Prairie du Chien on September 6 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter “under particularly brutal circumstances.”
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President Trump spoke about the arrest of Colonel Alejandro Jose Zarate at a rally in Wisconsin. (Getty Images/Crawford County Jail)
“Just this month, right here in this beautiful city, police arrested an illegal alien member of the violent Venezuelan prison gang known as Torren de Agua,” President Trump said. “These are really bad guys. This vile monster is accused of holding a mother and daughter captive against their will and sexually assaulting them over and over 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, along with hundreds of thousands of other animals even worse than him, crossed Kamala's wide open border,” Trump continued. “He was arrested and released in the sanctuary city of Minneapolis.”
Waltz declared at the rally, “We can't afford to go on for four more years,'' and roasted him.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump speaks Saturday at the Prairie du Chien Regional Arts Center in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
“By the way, I intend to abolish all sanctuary cities as soon as I capture them,” he added.
Last week, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told Fox News Digital that the Prairie du Chien community was shaken by the arrest. Van Orden's grandchildren live less than a mile from the home where the mother and daughter were abused.
“Why should a town of 5,500 people be afraid to let their children play in their front yards?'' the politician said. “It wasn't like this three years ago.”
Van Orden noted that Wisconsin agriculture relies on immigrant labor, but stressed the need to enact immigration reform in the interest of public safety.
People wait in line at sunrise before former President Donald Trump's campaign event at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on Saturday. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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“I've been to the border three times… They let guys with gang tattoos into the country and make them go through health checks before they cross the border. They don't want people, so they give them health checks. 'He has tuberculosis,''' the Republican lawmaker said incredulously.
Fox News Digital's Christina Coulter contributed to this report.
