Former President Donald Trump made controversial remarks on Monday, claiming that illegal immigrants were bringing “bad genes” into the United States.
These comments reinforced his ongoing inflammatory rhetoric about migrants. Trump, during a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, criticized his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, while referencing government figures that reportedly showed there were 13,000 immigrants in the U.S. not held in federal immigration detention despite having homicide convictions.
“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? They are now happily living in the United States,” Trump said.
He further claimed, “You know now, a murderer — I believe this — it’s in their genes. We’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. They had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals.”
However, Trump appeared to misconstrue data released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in September. The figures he cited do not account for individuals incarcerated outside ICE facilities, such as those in state or local prisons, and span several decades, including periods when Trump himself was president.
Furthermore, U.S. media reports on Monday indicated that migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border fell 75 percent year-on-year in September, reaching their lowest level since the Trump administration, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics.
Conservative commentator Richard Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, weighed in on Trump’s statements, saying, “I don’t normally defend Trump’s statements, and even here he drops the 13,000 released murderers lie.” Hanania added, “But he’s right that crime is largely genetic. He should just learn about the low crime rate among immigrants and think about the implications.”
Despite facing tight competition with Harris in the polls ahead of the November election, Trump has continued to focus much of his campaign on demonizing both undocumented immigrants and those residing legally in the U.S.
During a rally last month, the 78-year-old former reality TV star called for Harris to be prosecuted over President Joe Biden’s border policies and described illegal immigrants as “animals,” claiming they intended to “rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill.”
Trump went as far as stating, “They will walk into your kitchen, they’ll cut your throat,” and also falsely accused legal Haitian residents in Ohio of eating locals’ pets, threatening them with deportation.
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Trump’s harsh language about immigrants has earned him widespread criticism. His December remark accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country” led many to compare him to Adolf Hitler.
Meanwhile, studies show that immigrants tend to commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens, contradicting Trump’s portrayal.
In a statement clarifying the data Trump cited, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded, “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration. It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
