Donald Trump says ‘lot of bad genes’ among migrants in the US, draws criticism

With mere weeks to go before the US presidential elections, the rhetoric being spewed to shore up votes has seemingly gone up a notch. The latest instance was the former president Donald Trump saying on Monday, October 7, that there are “a lot of bad genes” in the US, while talking about murders allegedly committed by illegal immigrants living in the country.
“How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers,” he said during an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, reported by Reuters.
Trump’s comments came as he discussed his opponent, the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris’s immigration policies in the November 5 election.
“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,” the former president added.
What Trump was referring to was a letter from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Republican Representative Tony Gonzales.
The letter, released last month, highlighted that 13,099 people have been convicted of homicide who are on ICE’s “non-detained docket”. The docket in question includes various types of immigrants who entered the country legally as well as illegally.
Notably, those statistics have been deemed misleading by a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
“The data in this letter is being misinterpreted,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration. It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
Migrants have been a frequent target for the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign trail. He has pointed fingers at them at every chance he has got, especially those who have been implicated in crimes, and sometimes has painted exaggerated, graphic depictions of crimes committed by immigrants.
In a statement, the Trump campaign defended his comments, saying he was speaking only about murderers, not immigrants.
“President Trump was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants,” said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “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.”
The White House also took turn to condemn Trump’s remarks.
“That type of language is hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate and it has no place in our country,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.