Trump calls undocumented immigrants ‘animals’ liable to violence

Presumptive Republican nominee says November election will be America’s last if GOP loses; family of woman allegedly slain by Latino immigrant denies Trump’s claim he spoke with them

Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 2, 2024. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP)
Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 2, 2024. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP)

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) — Donald Trump called immigrants illegally in the United States “animals” and “not human” in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday, reverting to the degrading rhetoric he has employed time and again on the campaign trail.

The Republican US presidential candidate, appearing with several law enforcement officers, described in detail several criminal cases involving suspects in the country illegally and warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the November 5 election.

In a later speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he struck a similarly foreboding tone, describing the 2024 election as the nation’s “final battle.”

While speaking of Laken Riley — a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant in the country illegally — Trump said some immigrants were subhuman.

“The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals,'” said Trump, president from 2017 to 2021.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump described meeting the family of Ruby Garcia, a local 25-year-old murdered in March by a suspect in the country illegally, according to police. Garcia’s sister denied the former president spoke with the family, according to local media reports.

Laken Riley’s parents Jason Riley (C) and Allyson Philips attend Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the Forum River Center March 9, 2024 in Rome, Georgia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/Getty Images via AFP)

In stump speeches, Trump frequently claims that immigrants crossing the border with Mexico illegally have escaped from prisons and asylums in their home countries and are fueling violent crime in the United States.

While available data on criminals’ immigration status is sparse, researchers say people living in the US illegally do not commit violent crimes at a higher rate than native-born citizens.

US President Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic rival in the November presidential election, accuses Trump of encouraging Republicans in Congress not to pass legislation this year that would have beefed up security at the southern border and introduced measures aimed at reducing illegal immigration.

“Donald Trump is engaging in extreme rhetoric that promotes division, hate and violence in our country,” Michael Tyler, the communications director for Biden’s campaign, told reporters on Tuesday ahead of Trump’s speeches.

Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump holds up a fist as he departs after speaking during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 2, 2024. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP)

Trump titled his Michigan speech “Biden’s border bloodbath,” and said he met family members of Garcia, who was allegedly murdered last month in her car by Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, whom she was dating.

“They said she had just this most contagious laughter, and when she walked into a room, she lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people. I spoke to some of her family,” Trump said.

Mavi Garcia, Ruby Garcia’s sister, disputed that account, according to local television stations.

“He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us,” Mavi Garcia was quoted as saying by a local NBC affiliate.

Reuters was not able to immediately contact Garcia’s family. A Trump campaign representative declined to comment on the record.

The murders of Garcia and Riley have allowed Trump’s campaign to play simultaneously to some voters’ fears about violent crime and immigration.

A supporter holds a poster with a photo of Laken Riley before Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, speaks at a campaign rally, March 9, 2024, in Rome, Georgia. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Some 38% of Republicans cited immigration as the country’s top issue in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in late February, as did about one in five independents. Trump frequently claims without evidence that migrants have caused a spike in violent crime in US cities. On Tuesday, he repeated an unfounded claim that Latin American nations are intentionally sending their criminals to the United States.

During his evening speech in Wisconsin, Trump pledged he would stop the “plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of our American suburbs, cities and towns.”

He also warned that the coming election could be America’s last.

“This country is finished if we don’t win this election,” he said. “And I heard somebody say… two or three days ago, said, if we don’t win, this may be the last election our country ever has. And there could be truth to it.”

Michigan and Wisconsin are two swing states that could determine whether Biden or Trump occupies the White House next year.

Illustrative: a volunteer asks people to vote ‘uncommitted,’ instead of for US President Joe Biden, outside of McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn during the Michigan presidential primary election on February 27, 2024. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP)

In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by less than one percentage point and in Michigan by less than three. Both states are expected to be extremely close again this year.

Although both Trump and Biden have arithmetically clinched their presidential nominations, they will be on their party’s presidential primary ballots in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The Biden team will be watching for protest votes by Democrats angry over the president’s strong support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

In February’s presidential primary in Michigan, a state with a large Muslim population, Biden easily won the primary, but more than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted,” instead of for Biden, as a protest over his Gaza policy.

A similar option is available in Wisconsin on Tuesday. The protest campaign’s goal is to get 20,682 voters to mark their ballots “uninstructed,” Wisconsin’s version of “uncommitted.” The number is significant because it represents Biden’s winning margin over Trump in the state in 2020.

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