Trump raises alarm about illegal immigrant murderers: “There are a lot of bad genes in our country”

Former President Trump on Monday described killers of illegal immigrants as people with “bad genes” and warned that there are “a lot of bad genes in our country” as illegal immigrant crime remains a top issue for the US ahead of the November election be a voter.

“How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of whom were murderers, many of whom murdered far more than one person, and they now live happily in the United States,” the Republican said 2024 presidential candidate opposite radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Trump was apparently referring to the more than 13,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. who are on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's non-detained list for murder. The data was released in a letter to lawmakers last month. Some of them, although it is unclear how many, will be in federal or state prisons, and some came to the U.S. under previous administrations. According to the data, among those not incarcerated there are 425,431 convicted offenders and 222,141 offenders against whom criminal proceedings are pending.

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Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump has promised to complete construction of the southern border wall if elected. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

The revelation of the data has further exacerbated the problem of illegal immigrant crime, which has been a concern for many voters amid a massive border security crisis that has seen record numbers at the border and a number of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants. a major concern was immigrants.

“You know, now a murderer, I think it's in her genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he said.

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Trump seemed to be referring only to murderers, but some media outlets quickly pounced on Trump's words and accused him of referring to immigrants more generally. An NBC News headline called it the former president's “latest denigration of migrants.”

The Washington Post, Politico and other mainstream media outlets also repeated this narrative. Mediaite described Trump's comment as “appalling” and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “This type of language is hateful, it is disgusting, it is inappropriate. It has no place in our country.”

This divide shows DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and migrants pouring across the border. (Getty Images)

Trump has promised to crack down on illegal immigration as well as some forms of legal immigration. He has promised to launch a massive deportation campaign if elected. He has also promised to finish the border wall he built in his first administration and end Biden-era parole programs that have brought hundreds of thousands of migrants into the United States

Polls generally show Trump ahead of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Harris, on immigration and border security issues. Republicans said the Biden administration encouraged and fueled the border crisis by rolling back Trump-era policies and expanding catch-and-release regulations.

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Harris has sought to position herself as the candidate better suited to border security, pointing to her past as a prosecutor targeting transnational criminal organizations. She has also supported a bipartisan border security bill introduced this year that would increase funding for the border and also restrict the entry of some asylum seekers.

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Harris and the Biden administration have accused Trump of opposing this bill for political reasons, but conservatives said the bill would only codify high levels of illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, border encounters have plummeted, with a decline of more than 50% since the summer. The administration attributes this in part to an executive order signed by President Biden that restricts the entry of asylum seekers into the United States. Harris recently supported a move to further tighten that order.