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Washington DC
Republican presidential candidate and ex-US president Donald Trump on Monday (Oct 7) fueled a major controversy after he doubled down on his anti-immigration rhetoric. The GOP leader said migrants who have committed murders in US did so because “it’s in their genes.” He also blamed them for “a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
Trump made these remarks during an interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. The former president came down heavily on Vice President Kamala Harris, the border czar in the Joe Biden administration.
What the actual fu*k? Donald Trump on immigrants: “Many of them murdered far more than one person…it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.” pic.twitter.com/DrIDJfVcIG
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) October 7, 2024
“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,” Trump said.
The White House was quick to condemn Trump’s “hateful and disgusting” statement. “That type of language is hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, and has no place in our country,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Also read: West Asia crisis: Israel should strike Iran's nuclear facilities, says Trump
September data from US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed there were 13,099 people with homicide convictions on the agency’s “non-detained docket”. However, most of them are currently lodged in state of federal jails and are not free, as claimed by Trump.
Immigration is central to Trump’s 2024 campaign, with the GOP leader vowing to undertake the country’s largest deportation exercise if voted to power. Trump is known for issuing comments maligning and degrading immigrants entering the US illegally. In previous comments, Trump used words like “animals" and “killers" for immigrants. Once he also invoked language used by Adolf Hitler, saying immigrants entering the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country."
(With inputs from agencies)