Trump discusses immigrants: ‘We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now’
The former president targeted immigrants on Monday, making connections between crime and genetics.
TroibNews 
Former President Donald Trump has ramped up his hostile rhetoric toward immigrants, suggesting during a Monday interview that they commit serious crimes because “it’s in their genes.”
"How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they're now happily living in the United States. You know now a murder, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he stated while speaking with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
In his remarks, Trump also accused Vice President Kamala Harris of wanting to create a “Communist Party-type system” to “feed people governmentally.”
His assertion that immigrants are inherently violent marks a significant escalation in his anti-immigrant rhetoric, which he has frequently employed throughout his campaign, promising mass deportations if he were to reclaim the presidency. This latest statement aligns with his previous comments, including a statement last year where he claimed that “they’re poisoning the blood of our country.” The White House condemned Trump's remarks, stating they “echo the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt clarified in a statement that the former president was “referring to murderers, not migrants” during the interview.
“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,” she asserted.
Just last week, Trump indicated he would strip Temporary Protected Status from Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. This followed weeks of unfounded claims suggesting that the Haitian population was resorting to eating pets, a narrative he pushed alongside his running mate JD Vance. The attention led to bomb threats at schools in Springfield.
Harris responded to Trump’s rhetoric, stating it “has to stop” in a September interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
Immigration remains a significant issue for voters, posing a challenge for Harris. A September New York Times/Siena poll revealed that Trump led Harris on this topic, 53 percent to 42 percent. She recently campaigned in Douglas, Arizona, advocating for stricter border enforcement.
The Harris campaign had not yet provided a comment when approached for a response.
Trump has previously cited the figure of 13,000, which comes from a letter issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales last month. The letter indicated that 13,099 non-citizens on ICE’s “non-detained docket” had been convicted of homicide. However, this data does not imply that these individuals are currently detained by ICE; rather, they are more likely to be held in state or federal prison, and the numbers represent convictions over several decades.
Ramin Sohrabi contributed to this report for TROIB News
"How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they're now happily living in the United States. You know now a murder, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he stated while speaking with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
In his remarks, Trump also accused Vice President Kamala Harris of wanting to create a “Communist Party-type system” to “feed people governmentally.”
His assertion that immigrants are inherently violent marks a significant escalation in his anti-immigrant rhetoric, which he has frequently employed throughout his campaign, promising mass deportations if he were to reclaim the presidency. This latest statement aligns with his previous comments, including a statement last year where he claimed that “they’re poisoning the blood of our country.” The White House condemned Trump's remarks, stating they “echo the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt clarified in a statement that the former president was “referring to murderers, not migrants” during the interview.
“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,” she asserted.
Just last week, Trump indicated he would strip Temporary Protected Status from Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. This followed weeks of unfounded claims suggesting that the Haitian population was resorting to eating pets, a narrative he pushed alongside his running mate JD Vance. The attention led to bomb threats at schools in Springfield.
Harris responded to Trump’s rhetoric, stating it “has to stop” in a September interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
Immigration remains a significant issue for voters, posing a challenge for Harris. A September New York Times/Siena poll revealed that Trump led Harris on this topic, 53 percent to 42 percent. She recently campaigned in Douglas, Arizona, advocating for stricter border enforcement.
The Harris campaign had not yet provided a comment when approached for a response.
Trump has previously cited the figure of 13,000, which comes from a letter issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales last month. The letter indicated that 13,099 non-citizens on ICE’s “non-detained docket” had been convicted of homicide. However, this data does not imply that these individuals are currently detained by ICE; rather, they are more likely to be held in state or federal prison, and the numbers represent convictions over several decades.
Ramin Sohrabi contributed to this report for TROIB News
