Trump speaks of “bad genes” in migrants
Donald Trump repeatedly portrays immigrants as dangerous and insults them. The White House calls his latest statement that criminal migrants bring bad genes to the USA "disgusting".
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has linked serious crimes committed by migrants to their genes. Migrants who have committed murder in the USA have done so because it is in their genes, said the ex-president. There are currently “a lot of bad genes” in the country.
In a radio interview with conservative presenter Hugh Hewitt, Trump first criticized his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and then came to the topic of immigration. Trump spoke of thousands of murderers that the Democrats have allowed into the country through their lax immigration policy. “Many of them have murdered far more than one person and are now living happily in the USA.”
“This kind of language is hateful”
Trump referred to 425,000 migrants convicted of crimes, including 13,000 found guilty of murder. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, however, these figures refer to several decades, including cases from Trump’s time in office. Studies show that illegal immigrants in the US do not commit crimes more often than those born there.
Asked about Trump’s statements, Karine Jean-Pierre, spokeswoman for US President Joe Biden, said: “This kind of language is hateful, it is disgusting, it is inappropriate and has no place in our country.”
Immigration determines the election campaign
Migration and the situation on the border with Mexico, through which many people come to the US without papers, is one of the important issues in the election campaign. Trump uses extremely anti-immigrant rhetoric, denigrating undocumented immigrants in almost every one of his campaign appearances and declaring that he would order a mass deportation of migrants if elected.
This is not the first time Trump has claimed that immigrants are changing the genetic makeup of the United States. Last year he said that immigrants who come to the United States illegally are poisoning the country’s blood. In his inaugural speech as a presidential candidate at the Republican Party Convention in July, he indirectly referred to migrants as garbage.
According to polls, the issue of migration is a weak point for Harris because at the end of 2023, during her term as vice president, border crossings to the United States reached record numbers. In recent months, however, the numbers have fallen sharply.
Four weeks before the presidential election, opponents Trump and Harris are neck and neck in many places in the polls. Due to the peculiarities of the US electoral system, the election is likely to be decided in just a few states where the outcome is particularly close. These states include Arizona, which has a long border with Mexico.
