Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, claimed on the 7th that immigrants commit violent crimes because of bad genes while criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s border policy. In an interview with the conservative radio show The Hugh Hewitt Show that day, former President Trump criticized the rapid influx of immigrants for driving up housing prices in the United States.
“We’re allowing people to come in through open borders. 13,000 of them were murderers,” he said without providing any evidence. “Many of them have murdered more than one person, but now they’re living happily in the United States,” he said. “Murderers have those genes. Now we (around us) have a lot of bad genes.” He continued, “There are 425,000 people who should not be in the United States,” and criticized them, saying, “They are criminals.”
Former President Trump previously pledged to pursue an ultra-hardline anti-immigration policy, including promising to deport the largest number of illegal immigrants on his first day in office, targeting anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. Former President Trump claims that his rival Vice President Kamala Harris, who served as the “border czar” of the Biden administration, failed to control the border, leading to a large influx of illegal immigrants, and that these immigrants are causing violent crimes, driving up housing prices, and taking jobs from black and Hispanic Americans. However, there are no statistics showing that crime rates are higher in areas of the United States where many immigrants reside, and there are even research results showing that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants.
In a debate on the 10th of last month, former President Trump made the unfounded claim that Haitian immigrants who are legally residing in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats. He also stated that he would revoke the residency status of Haitian immigrants if he were to take office.
Former President Trump was heavily criticized late last year when he compared immigrants to “vermin” and said, “Immigrants are polluting the blood of America” while mentioning a hard-liner stance on illegal immigration. At the time, there were criticisms in the United States that this statement was like the claims of the Nazi regime, which pursued a policy of exterminating Jews. Former President Trump’s repeated, ultra-hardline anti-immigrant remarks appear to have been made in consideration of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
In a survey conducted by CBS last month, more than 50% of respondents said they supported former President Trump’s pledge to deport large-scale illegal immigrants.