Donald Trump mustered about 31,000 people in a Costa Mesa, California rally Thursday night, an delivered a tough message on immigration in a bid to lock up the state and win the Republican nomination.

The New York businessman and immigration hardliner took the stage and was joined by 15 people holding memorial signs for family members who were killed by individuals in the U.S. illegally.

"Everyone here essentially has the same end result," Trump said, referring to the posters with images of the deceased. "These are great, unbelievable people. They did not die in vain, believe me."

Trump told the estimated 31,000 people in attendance that California has "suffered" the most due to "open borders" out of all 50 states. Throughout the hour-long address, he repeatedly cited crime stats as evidence of the effect illegal immigration has had on Golden State residents.

The crowd broke out into chants to "build that wall" multiple times during the rally.

Trump, slightly more energized than normal, egged on the supporters. "They used to call us the silent majority, we're the noisy majority," Trump said.

Trump also defended his tough talk by noting that his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, seems only to be worried about his "tone."

"Here we are in a world that's going to hell, we have people's heads are being cut off," Trump said in response to Clinton. "Chop off the heads, drown people in these big cages, 50 at a time... and she said, 'I don't like his tone, his tone is nasty.'"

"We need a tough tone, folks. We need a tough tone," he said.

Donald Trump at California rally: "We need a tough tone" https://t.co/wSN8qEzMkr https://t.co/r6c3yQTYgI — CNN (@CNN) April 29, 2016

Trump's rally was met by protesters outside the event, and several were arrested after they trashed a police car.

Stephen Miller, senior advisor to Trump and former communications director to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., warmed up the crowd by saying immigration would be the focus of the front-running candidate's address. Miller also ridiculed Ted Cruz's decision to make Carly Fiorina his running mate.

"Carly Fiorina's an interesting choice because here in California, Carly Fiorina laid off 30,000 workers and she sent their jobs to India and she sent their jobs overseas to Asia," Miller said. "So we're gonna call the Cruz-Fiorina ticket the outsourcing ticket and we're gonna call Donald J. Trump the America ticket."

California's Republican primary is scheduled for June 7. More than 150 delegates will be up for grabs. The Trump camp has said it expects to hit 1,237, the majority needed to win the nomination, after that date.