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Trump says illegal migrants who commit murder have 'bad genes'

Posted on by Vanessa
Trump says illegal migrants who commit murder have 'bad genes'

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WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump stepped up his attack on migrants on Monday, falsely claiming that people who are in the U.S. illegally and commit murder have “bad genes.”

Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris' work on the U.S. southern border and immigration proposals in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday

“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of whom were murderers,” Trump said.

“Many of them have murdered far more than one person and are now living happily in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I think it's in her genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he added.

The former president appeared to be referring to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement letter released last month showing that 13,099 people have been convicted of murder and are on ICE's “do-not-detain list.” This list includes different types of immigrants who entered the country legally and illegally.

Many people in this category are not in immigration custody because they are in state or federal prisons. In some cases, the crimes for which they are convicted occurred years or decades ago.

Trump's critics were quick to point out that migrants are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens and that Trump has used dehumanizing rhetoric to describe migrants in the US since entering politics.

“This type of language is hateful,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “It’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate. It has no place in our country.”

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign did not comment on Trump's comments about “Gene.”

Trump has attacked migrants — and political opponents — since the day he announced his first presidential campaign in 2015, using dehumanizing terms like “vermin” and “the enemy within.”

Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire last year that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country.” A USA TODAY analysis of more than five dozen of the former president's 2019 rallies found that he used words like “invasion” and “murderer” to talk about immigrants 500 times at rallies.

Contribution: Reuters

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