Trump calls for the death penalty against migrants who kill US citizens

Former President Donald Trump on Friday repeatedly called for the death penalty to be used against migrants who kill US citizens and police officers.

“I hereby call for the death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada.

The former president made the same remark during his rally in Aurora, Colorado, earlier in the day.

Trump has also previously called for the death penalty to be used against human and drug traffickers.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

The comment comes as the former president is ramping up his anti-immigrant rhetoric as he seeks to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee whom he is trying to portray as the “border czar” in charge of the Biden administration's immigration policies is responsible.

Trump has frequently used tactics to portray noncitizens entering the United States as a threat to Americans' livelihoods and safety.

During his rally in Aurora, Trump used explosive rhetoric, declaring he would “save” the city, which he said had been “invaded and taken over” by migrants who entered the country illegally.

“I will save Aurora and every city that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Colorado's third-largest city is being overrun by gang members from Venezuela and accused Harris during remarks in Colorado on Friday of allowing “an army of illegal alien gang members and criminal migrants” to “move from the dungeons of” into the USA to enter the third world” and destroy cities like Aurora.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, dismissed such claims and said last month he wanted to show the former president “that the narrative is not at all accurate.”

Trump has made similar claims linking immigrants to violence in other states.

During last month's presidential debate, he amplified baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating local pets, even though local officials said they had received no credible reports of immigrants harming pets.