Former President Donald Trump sparked controversy again on Monday by claiming that illegal immigrants are bringing “bad genes” into the United States. These comments, made during a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, add to Trump’s ongoing rhetoric on immigration, which has been widely criticized for demonizing migrants.
Trump made the statement while attacking Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the upcoming presidential election, referencing government figures showing that 13,000 immigrants with homicide convictions were not detained by federal immigration authorities.
“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many having killed more than one person? They are now living in the United States,” Trump said, adding, “A murderer — I believe this — it’s in their genes. We’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
However, the figures Trump cited appear to misrepresent data released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The statistics cover individuals incarcerated in state or local prisons over several decades, including during Trump’s presidency.
Critics swiftly condemned his remarks. Conservative commentator Richard Hanania, while disagreeing with the 13,000 figure, supported Trump’s broader argument on crime and genetics but urged him to consider the low crime rates among immigrants. “I don’t typically defend Trump, and he did repeat the 13,000 released murderers lie, but he’s right that crime has a genetic component. He just needs to learn about the low crime rates among immigrants,” said Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.
As Trump and Harris remain locked in a close race for the upcoming election, Trump has focused much of his campaign on immigration, often portraying migrants as a threat to public safety. At a rally last month, Trump called for Harris to be prosecuted for President Joe Biden’s border policies, referring to immigrants as “animals” intent on “rape, pillage, thieving, plundering, and killing.” He also falsely accused Haitian residents in Ohio of eating pets and threatened them with deportation.
This is not Trump’s first controversial comment on immigrants. In December, he faced widespread condemnation for claiming that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” drawing comparisons to Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.
Despite these inflammatory remarks, Trump remains competitive in the polls, setting up one of the most contentious elections in recent history.
