President Trump on Thursday shared graphic footage taken by a security camera in which a man, who the authorities said had come from Haiti, is seen severely beating a woman in front of a store in Florida.
The president claimed that the fatal attack showed how immigration policies promoted by Democrats, including protections for Haitians, shield criminals.
Mr. Trump has made disparaging comments about Haitian immigrants for years, and has pushed to end their eligibility for a program that has allowed them to live and work in the United States since an earthquake ravaged Haiti in 2010. His administration recently asked the Supreme Court to allow it to end the program after lower courts blocked its effort to do so.
The program, Temporary Protected Status, was signed into law by President George Bush in 1990 and extended several times for Haitians by other administrations. It now shields some 350,000 Haitian immigrants.
Mr. Trump and his top aides believe it is a winning political strategy for Republicans to connect the issues of immigration and crime, suggesting through examples of individual horrific crimes that recent immigrants have caused a crime wave. In truth, immigrants have historically committed crime at lower rates than native-born Americans, and crime fell nationwide over the past few years as immigration levels spiked.
Mr. Trump shared the video on his Truth Social platform on Thursday night, writing that Temporary Protected Status had allowed the man in the video to stay in the United States. He said the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress were to blame for extending protection from deportation to the man and other Haitians.
The Department of Homeland Security had shared the video on social media earlier on Thursday, along with a statement announcing the arrest of Rolbert Joachin. The statement, published Tuesday, said that Mr. Joachin was accused of bludgeoning a woman to death with a hammer at a gas station in Florida last week.
The video shows a man smashing a car parked outside a store with a hammer. A woman later emerges from the store and approaches the man. He walks toward her, hits her in the head with the hammer and keeps striking her after she falls to the ground.
“I don’t recommend you watch this tape, because it is so terrible, but felt I had an obligation to put it up so that people can see what Democrats are protecting,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Trump has often seized on crimes committed by migrants to attack the policies of Democrats and the Biden administration, which oversaw a record number of illegal border crossings. Last year, he signed legislation that orders the deportation of immigrants who are accused of specific crimes and in the United States illegally — named the Laken Riley Act, for a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed by a migrant from Venezuela who had crossed into the United States illegally.
Some social media users denounced Mr. Trump for sharing such gruesome footage to push his anti-immigration agenda. In response to questions from The New York Times, a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, said, “President Trump will always share the truth with the American people, even when the media tries to hide it.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in its statement that Mr. Joachin had entered the United States in August 2022 and was granted Temporary Protected Status that expired in 2024. The department added that he would be deported regardless of the outcome of his case.
Police officers in Fort Myers, Fla., arrested Mr. Joachin, 40, on April 2 in connection with the killing of a woman, the Fort Myers Police Department said last week.
Earlier that morning, police officers responded to reports that a man had used a hammer to smash a vehicle and attack a woman at a convenience store, court records show. The man ran off, leaving her lying on the ground.
Officers arriving at the scene saw blood around her head. She was later pronounced dead and identified as Nilufa Easmin, a 51-year-old employee of the convenience store, according to the records. The Department of Homeland Security said that she was a mother.
The Bangladeshi American Society of South West Florida later said on social media that she was a member of the Bangladeshi community.
Officers detained Mr. Joachin after spotting him walking in Fort Myers on the day the woman was killed, court records said. He provided a detailed confession about the murder, the court records show.
Surveillance video from the crime scene was part of a list of exhibits admitted on Wednesday, according to court records.
Mr. Joachin was known to the police in Fort Myers. He was detained last month with what appeared to be the same backpack he wore during the April attack, the court records said.
He is being held without bond in the Lee County Jail, and faces charges of first-degree murder and third-degree property damage, court records show. His first court appearance was on Wednesday, and his arraignment is scheduled for May 4.
Lawyers for Mr. Joachin did not immediately respond to phone calls and emailed requests for comment.
Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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