Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential nominee, listens to operatic singer Christopher Macchio, after speaking at a rally at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday, October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pa.
NEW YORK, NY (AP) – Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, suggested on Monday that immigrants who have committed murder in the U.S. did so because it was “in their genes.” He added that there are “a lot of genes bad in our country at this time.”
Trump’s latest claim that immigrants are changing America’s hereditary makeup is reminiscent of Adolf Hitler, who claimed that immigrants entering the U.S. without permission were “poisoning our blood.”
Trump made these comments in a radio broadcast with conservative host Hugh Hewitt on Monday. He was criticizing Vice President Kamalah Harris, his Democratic opponent in the 2024 presidential election, when he shifted to immigration. The Department of Homeland Security said that these statistics include cases from Trump’s administration.
“How about opening the border to 13,000 murderers?” Trump said that many of them had murdered more than one victim. “And they are now living happily in the United States.” You know, I believe that a murderer is in their genes. We have a lot of bad gene in our country. You had 425,000 criminals who shouldn’t have been in our country.
Trump’s campaign claimed that his comments about genes were about murderers.
“He was clearly referring murderers, not migrants.” It’s disgusting that the media is so quick to defend murderers and rapists in order to write a bad headline on President Trump,” KarolineLeavitt, Trump’s national press secretary said in a release.
Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided data on immigration enforcement to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales about those under its supervision. This included those who were not in ICE custody. This included 13,099 people found guilty of murder and 425,431 criminals.
These numbers cover decades, including the Trump administration. According to the Department of Homeland Security which oversees ICE, those not in ICE’s custody may be detained either by local or state law enforcement agencies.
The Harris campaign declined comment.
Karine Jean Pierre, White House Press Secretary, responded to a question from reporters on Monday regarding Trump’s “bad gene” comment. She said: “That type language is hateful, disgusting, inappropriate, and has no place in this country.”
The Biden administration has tightened asylum restrictions for migrant workers, and Harris has sought to address a weakness as she campaigns by projecting a more aggressive stance on immigration.
Former president and Republican candidate has made illegal immigration central to his 2024 campaign. He has pledged to stage the largest deportation in U.S. History if elected. He has a history of making comments that denigrate immigrants, such as calling them “animals,” “killers,” or saying they spread disease.
During his debate with Harris last month, Trump falsely stated that Haitian immigrants were abducting pets and eating them in Ohio.
As president, he asked why the U.S. accepted immigrants from Haiti and Africa instead of Norway, and told four Congresswomen – all people of color, and three of whom are born in the U.S. – to “go back and fix the totally damaged and crime infested place from which they came.”
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Will Weissert, a Washington-based writer for the Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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