Immigrants ‘commit murder because they have bad genes’

The statistics on convicted murderers cited by the Republican nominee include cases from his administration.

Donald Trump at the US-Mexico border in Arizona in August. Picture: AFP

Republican nominee Donald Trump has suggested 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’s the latest example of Mr Trump alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the US.

Last year, he evoked language once used by Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the US illegally were “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,” he said.

“And they’re now happily living in the US. 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.”

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Mr Trump “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,” she said.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement released enforcement data to Republican representative Tony Gonzales last month about the people under its supervision, including those not in ICE custody. That included 13,099 people who were found guilty of homicide and 425,431 convicted criminals.

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 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 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.

AP