The Leelanau County government center and sheriff’s office reported a high call volume as county residents reacted to county Sheriff Mike Borkovich’s appearance on national TV at Donald Trump’s side in Grand Rapids on April 2, as the former president called for increased border security and deportations in response to the recent murder of a Michigan woman by an immigrant living in the country illegally.
Although Borkovich says that he did not appear alongside the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate as a political endorsement, he has garnered criticism from residents for appearing in his county sheriff uniform and as a member of the Michigan Police Officers Association (MPOA), whose president had no such qualms about handing out an endorsement to Trump at the April 2 rally.
For his part, Borkovich described his meeting with former President Trump and the MPOA sheriffs as part of regular “police business” to the press. He also implied that he was held to a double standard, noting that police officers often meet with presidents and other important figures when they get the opportunity to “listen and see what they can do to make things better.”
“If they want to live in a world of darkness and hate, they’re free to do it, but it’s not my world,” Borkovich said when asked for a response to the phone calls that he’s been receiving in the wake of the April 2 event.
Borkovich referred to his more vocal critics as “haters.” The sheriff said at least one resident has demanded a public apology for appearing at Trump’s side as a Leelanau County official. However, Borkovich suggested that this resident should apologize to families who lost a loved one to drug overdoses after getting addicted to illegal substances moving over the border.
To Borkovich, the event was a meeting of MPOA sheriffs solicited by Trump to give a “boots on the ground” perspective on illegal immigration in Michigan. He said in a previous interview that he was greatly concerned about human trafficking and sex trafficking across the border, as well as the distribution of fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine allegedly made in Mexico in the U.S.
After a roundtable discussion with Trump and about a dozen Michigan sheriffs, Borkovich could be seen on Trump’s immediate left on networks like Fox and NBC as the former president blamed his opponent in this year’s elections, Joe Biden, for the murder Ruby Garcia, a Grand Rapids woman found dead on March 22. She was allegedly killed by Brandon Ortiz-Vite, a Mexico-born man who was deported during the Trump presidency but had since illegally returned to the country.
In any case, the sheriff collected county pay during his trip to Grand Rapids. As an elected official, the Leelanau County sheriff is a salaried position that receives a set amount of pay every week, regardless of whether the current office holder is in the county, on vacation, or at a conference, with this event being no exception.
Borkovich also confirmed that he drove to Grand Rapids and back in his sheriff’s office patrol vehicle, which was gassed up on the county taxpayer’s dollar at the Leelanau County Road Commission garage in Suttons Bay as recently as March 29, and possibly sooner, to be determined with the release of their April monthly bill to the county.
