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EXCLUSIVE – The White House is highlighting the brutal hammer killing of a Florida mother as President Donald Trump prepares to headline a midterm rally in Fort Myers on Friday, with a spokesperson telling Fox News Digital that the case demonstrates the consequences of former President Joe Biden's border policies.
Trump is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. at Florida Gulf Coast University's Alico Arena, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The White House is pointing to the killing in the same city as it prepares to put a spotlight on the president's immigration enforcement record.
"A few short months ago, an illegal alien barbarically killed a woman outside of a gas station in Fort Myers by hitting her on the head with a hammer multiple times," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital exclusively.
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"This heinous murderer was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the Biden administration release him into the country, but they then gave him Temporary Protected Status. This is the result of Democrats open-border policies. If you import the third world, you become the third world."
Trump previously condemned the killing in an April Truth Social post, calling the surveillance video "one of the most vicious things you will ever see" and blaming the Biden administration for allowing the suspect into the country.
"This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies," Trump wrote at the time.
The remarks refer to the brazen killing of a Florida mother in April. Haitian national Rolbert Joachim is accused of repeatedly striking the woman in the head with a hammer outside a Fort Myers gas station.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, surveillance video showed the suspect smashing the woman's windshield before approaching her and repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer in broad daylight. The victim, a gas station clerk and mother of two teenage daughters, died in the attack.
Fort Myers police enlisted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help locate Joachim, who was subsequently arrested on Mango Street, DHS said.
The department said Joachim entered the United States in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration. A federal judge issued a final removal order against him that year, but he later received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which expired in 2024.
The designation allows eligible foreign nationals from certain countries to remain and work temporarily in the United States because of conditions in their home countries. It does not provide permanent residency.
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The White House is putting a spotlight on the case as Trump prepares to address supporters in southwest Florida, a region that has delivered strong election results for the president.
Trump carried Florida in all three of his presidential campaigns, expanding his statewide winning margin from roughly one percentage point in 2016 to more than 13 points in 2024.
In Lee County, home to Fort Myers, Trump won 63.6% of the vote in 2024, compared with 35.3% for former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to official county election results.
The White House says Trump's immigration crackdown has led to 17 straight months without releases at the border and the deportation of more than 3 million people who were in the United States illegally.
DHS said in April that ICE had lodged an immigration detainer against Joachim following his arrest and that he would face deportation regardless of the outcome of his criminal case.
Prosecutors later announced they would seek the death penalty against Joachim, according to local reporting.
Friday's rally comes as Trump continues to hit the campaign trail supporting Republican candidates across the country ahead of the midterm elections.
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