Donald Trump has suggested migrants in the US who have committed murder have done so because “it’s in their genes”.
While seeking to criticise his Democratic opponent, vice president Kamala Harris, over her record on immigration, Mr Trump cited statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.
In a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, Mr Trump said: “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. 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.”
The statistics, however, spanned decades and included the years of Mr Trump’s administration.
His campaign has sought to dismiss claims Mr Trump was suggesting migrants were genetically predisposed to murder.
“He was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said.
“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.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to Mr Trump’s comments saying: “That type of language, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, it has no place in our country.”
It comes nearly a month after Mr Trump made unfounded claims about Haitian migrants eating residents’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, during the presidential debate.
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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 they spread diseases.