Donald Trump, who accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of the country” and promised to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in the country’s history if elected, called immigrants who are in the US illegally “animals”, using dehumanizing language that, according to scholars of extremism, increases the risk of violence.
“Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re human.’ I say, ‘No, they’re not human, they’re not human, they’re animals,'” he said.
With that, the statement came as the former president again cited the murder of Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia.
A Venezuelan man who authorities say entered the U.S. illegally has been charged with the murder. Riley’s family attended Trump’s rally in Georgia last month and met with him backstage. Trump referred to the suspect in Riley’s death as an “illegal alien animal.”
“Under corrupt Joe Biden, every state is now a border state. Every city is now a border city because Joe Biden brought the carnage, chaos and killing from around the world and dumped it directly in our backyards,” he said Trump in Grand Rapids, where he was flanked by uniformed police officers.
Although violent crime has declined, Trump and other Republicans have attacked Biden by seizing on a wave of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants who are in the US illegally.
Illegal immigration has become a central issue of the American campaign as border crossings have reached record levels. Polls suggest Trump has an edge over Biden on this issue because many potential voters say they are concerned about the impact of the influx of immigrants.
Trump continued to hammer the point at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Tuesday night, 2, when the state was holding its presidential primaries.
Trump accused rogue nations of “pump migrants across our open border” and “send prisoners, murderers, drug traffickers, mental patients, terrorists” — although there is no evidence that any country is involved in this kind of coordinated effort.
He also claimed that immigrants would cost the country trillions of dollars in public benefits and cause Social Security and Medicare to “give way and collapse.”
“If you want to help Joe Biden drive grandma off a cliff to fund government benefits for illegals, then vote for Joe Biden,” he said. “But when I’m president, instead of throwing Grandma overboard, I’ll send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home.”
