October 7th 2024.
In a recent radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed his belief that some migrants in the United States who have committed murder may have a genetic predisposition to do so. He also claimed that there are "a lot of bad genes" in the country currently. This is not the first time that Trump has made controversial statements about immigrants and their impact on the country's hereditary makeup. Last year, he even used language reminiscent of Adolf Hitler to argue that undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of America.
During the interview, Trump was criticizing his Democratic opponent for the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, when he shifted the conversation to immigration. He cited statistics from the US Department of Homeland Security, which included cases from his own administration, to support his claims. "How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers? Many of them murdered far more than one person," Trump said. "And they're now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer - I believe this: it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Then you had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn't be here that are criminals."
In response to criticism of his comments, Trump's campaign clarified that he was specifically referring to murderers and not all migrants. "He was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants. It's pretty disgusting the media is always so quick to defend murderers, rapists, and illegal criminals if it means writing a bad headline about President Trump," said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released data last month to Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, which showed that there were 13,099 individuals under their supervision who had been convicted of homicide, and 425,431 convicted criminals. However, these numbers span over many years, including during Trump's administration. Additionally, some of these individuals may be detained by state or local law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The campaign for Vice President Harris declined to comment on Trump's remarks. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned Trump's language, stating, "That type of language, it's hateful, it's disgusting, it's inappropriate, it has no place in our country." The current administration, led by President Biden, has implemented stricter asylum restrictions for migrants, and Harris has also taken a tougher stance on immigration in her campaign.
Trump's history of making derogatory comments about immigrants is well-documented. He has referred to them as "animals" and "killers," and claimed that they spread diseases. During a debate with Harris last month, he even falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Ohio of abducting and eating pets. As a president, he has questioned why the US is accepting immigrants from countries like Haiti and Africa, and instead advocated for accepting immigrants from countries like Norway. He has also famously told four congresswomen, all people of color, to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."
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