Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has suggested that migrants who are in the US and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes”.
There are, he added, “a lot of bad genes in our country right now”.
It is the latest example of Mr Trump alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the US. Last year, said immigrants entering the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
Mr Trump made the comments on Monday in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. He was criticising his Democratic opponent for the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, when he pivoted to immigration, citing statistics that the Department of Homeland Security says include cases from his administration.
“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers? Many of them murdered far more than one person,” Mr Trump said. “And they’re now happily living in the United States.
“You know, now a murderer — I believe this: it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Then you had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals.”
Mr Trump’s campaign said his comments regarding genes were about murderers.
“He was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants. It’s pretty disgusting the media is always so quick to defend murderers, rapists and illegal criminals if it means writing a bad headline about president Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released immigration enforcement data to Republican Tony Gonzales last month about the people under its supervision. That included 13,099 people who were found guilty of homicide and 425,431 people who are convicted criminals.
But those numbers span decades, including during Mr Trump’s administration. And those who are not in ICE custody may be detained by state or local law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
Asked during her briefing with reporters on Monday about Mr Trump’s “bad genes” comment, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “That type of language, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, it has no place in our country.”
The Biden administration has stiffened asylum restrictions for migrants, and Ms Harris, seeking to address a vulnerability as she campaigns, has worked to project a tougher stance on immigration.
The former president and Republican nominee has made illegal immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign, vowing to stage the largest deportation operation in US history if elected.
He has a long history of comments maligning immigrants, including referring to them as “animals” and “killers” and saying that they spread diseases.
Last month, during his debate with Ms Harris, Mr Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating pets.
