Donald Trump delivers a dark speech on immigration in Wisconsin's Prairie du Chien

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN – Former President Donald Trump returned to western Wisconsin Saturday to give remarks in Prairie du Chien, a city of about 5,500 people along the Mississippi River that has gotten big attention from Republicans as they continue messaging to voters on immigration.

The campaign stop was held indoors at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center, though the campaign initially planned an outdoor event before the Secret Service raised concerns about its ability to secure the event due to staffing shortages. The auditorium sat around 300 people, but a few hundred more people waited outside to get into the venue than were let in.

Trump spent much of his speech criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris over immigration. Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border Friday for the first time since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee and the second time as vice president.

“What she’s done is a total disqualifier,” Trump said. “We had four years of incompetence. We can’t have another four years of incompetence.”

Trump said illegal immigration “is more important than anything having to do with the economy … this is something bigger, in a sense, because this is the fabric of our country.”

Trump at one point acknowledged his hour and 15 minute speech was “dark,” saying he’d get to celebratory “Make America Great Again” cheers later in the speech. In characteristically rambling and sometimes disconnected remarks, Trump railed on President Joe Biden's trips to the beach and labeled Harris "a very dumb person" and "mentally impaired."

“If Kamala is reelected, your town and every town just like it all across Wisconsin and all across our country, the heartland, the coast, it doesn’t matter — will be transformed into a third-world hell hole,” Trump said.

Trump's visit comes 37 days until Election Day. Both Trump's and Harris' campaigns have been crisscrossing the state with candidates and surrogates. Trump will be back in the state Tuesday to visit the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane County, while second gentleman Doug Emhoff will campaign in Milwaukee the same day.

Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who is from Prairie du Chien, said he wished the former president’s visit “was under better circumstances.”

“But leaders show up where they need to be,” Van Orden said.

More: Trump, Harris are ramping up their travel in Wisconsin. See all the places they've been

Republicans focus on case involving suspected Venezuelan gang member

In the past few weeks, Trump and Republicans running for Congress in Wisconsin have circulated a case in which Prairie du Chien police say a man with ties to Tren De Aragua, a Venezuela-based transnational criminal organization, sexually assaulted a woman and attacked her daughter earlier this month.

Unlike widely debunked claims from Trump and running mate Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, most of Republicans' claims about Prairie du Chien have been accurate.

Police have said the victim and suspect knew each other, which is common in sexual assault cases, and that they have not come into contact with other members of the gang. According to the criminal complaint, the suspect and victim had been living together and dating for three weeks.

But Republicans have also made distortions about the case, including claims that police in Madison arrested and released the suspect in 2023. Both the Madison Police Department and Dane County Sheriff's Office confirmed he was never in their custody.

Madison Chief of Police Shon Barnes said officers tried to arrest him before he fled to Minnesota, where he was arrested and later released. Madison detectives continued working with federal law enforcement partners to apprehend him, Barnes said.

More: Was a Venezuelan gang member arrested in Prairie du Chien? Here's what's accurate and not.

Prairie du Chien Chief of Police Kyle Teynor, part of a panel of speakers before Trump appeared on stage, reiterated the department has not had contact with any other members of the gang before or after the incident.

“Violence knows no nationality, it knows no immigration status, it knows no race and it knows no political affiliation,” Teynor said, ending his speech by encouraging attendees to “use your voices in November.”

Teynor and Crawford County Sheriff Dale McCullick also spoke of fentanyl posing a challenge to the community, with McCullick endorsing Trump’s border policies.

William Garcia, the state Democratic Party chair of the 3rd Congressional District, told the Journal Sentinel it was “sad that (Republicans) chose to exploit a terrible incident to really divide a community."

"For Trump and Van Orden's visit to come try and turn Prairie du Chien as a place filled with crime and violence is completely false. It's a totally false narrative," Garcia said.

Sexual assault is pervasive; immigrants not more likely to commit crime

Ian Henderson from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault noted that sexual violence is a pervasive problem and that survivors and perpetrators "come from all walks of life."

"Narratives that might lead people to believe that immigrants, for example, are more likely to commit sexual violence are not helpful," Henderson said. "Anything that reinforces myths or biases that aren't grounded in what we know to be true about sexual violence, those are not helpful."

Neither are narratives that promote the "stranger myth," when in fact "most victims know the person who harmed them," he said.

About one in three women and one in five men in Wisconsin have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the state Department of Health Services.

A recent study funded by the National Institute of Justice using data from Texas — the only state that documents immigration status in criminal records — found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes. That includes lower rates for assault and sexual assault.

More: What we found when we reviewed 178 recent homicides related to domestic violence in Milwaukee

Democrats see opportunity in competitive western congressional race

Crawford County, where Prairie du Chien is located, voted about 53% for Trump and 46% for Biden in 2020. The western part of the state is home to the competitive 3rd Congressional District, where Van Orden faces Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke.

“The Midwest has been so powerful for us. This area has been so powerful for us,” Trump said, encouraging people to vote early.

The district is "where a lot of our moderate and swing voters live, it's where you can actually change minds, is here in western Wisconsin," said Garcia.

Cooke recently released an ad positioning herself as moderate and saying in part that she will "stand up to Democrats to fight for a secure border."

More: National Democrats shift Derrick Van Orden race onto priority 'Red to Blue' list

Garcia said he does hear from voters who are concerned about immigration, but it's mixed with concerns about the potential loss of undocumented workers supporting Wisconsin's dairy and agricultural sectors.

"It's very odd when you have this talk of just closing the border completely and deporting every undocumented person. That would destroy the Wisconsin economy," he said. "And Republicans don't seem capable of giving us a plan that addresses both things at once."

(This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.)

More: Farmers, factories, at the center of the immigration debate. Trump has vowed mass deportations.

Where to find help for sexual assault and domestic violence

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.

• The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24-hour confidential hotline at 414-933-2722.

• The Women’s Center in Waukesha has a 24-hour hotline at 262-542-3828.

• We Are Here Milwaukee provides information on culturally specific organizations at weareheremke.org.

• End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin has a statewide directory of resources at endabusewi.org/get-help.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump delivers a dark speech on immigration in Prairie du Chien