Migrant convicted of murder in US sues Trump

An illegal migrant serving a long sentence in the US for murder has sued the country's president, Donald Trump, for mentioning his case during the election campaign, demanding compensation of $75 million.

Fox News reported this.

According to the channel, 27-year-old Brandon Ortiz-Vite, serving a sentence of undetermined length (from 39 to 102 years), filed a handwritten lawsuit in a Michigan district court, claiming he was humiliated by the president and demanding a public apology, US citizenship, and monetary compensation of $75 million. The channel recalls that Trump paid great attention to combating illegal migration during his 2024 election campaign, and at a rally in Grand Rapids he mentioned the Ortiz-Vite case and showed a photo of the criminal, calling him "America's problem."

Ortiz-Vite claims that during the speech Trump reduced his personality to "racial affiliation and migration status," which allegedly "humiliated him and infringed on his dignity." "I have fully taken responsibility for what I did, but using my case for political purposes and mentioning it on television was unfair and humiliating. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, everything got even worse," he wrote in the lawsuit, noting that when his situation became public knowledge, his life turned into "a living nightmare."

Attorney Matthew Borgula told Fox News that Ortiz-Vite's lawsuit is unlikely to succeed for a number of reasons, including presidential immunity protecting Trump from prosecution. He stressed that the politician's statements are "essentially true" and the case should be closed without really beginning. "Although the plaintiff feels aggrieved, I do not see that a federal court could offer him any remedy," the lawyer noted, citing the plaintiff's admission of guilt in intentional murder in the heat of passion.

Ortiz-Vite was convicted of murdering his partner in March 2024 and is currently being held in Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids. He was deported from the US in 2020 but later managed to return to the country illegally.

Source: TASS