Once again, in violent terms, former US President Donald Trump directed harsh criticism at his arch-rival, Joe Biden, and his policy toward immigrants.
In a speech he delivered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump, the presidential candidate, accused Biden of paving the way for a bloodbath on the border, with the flow of immigrants into the country illegally.
He also repeated his claims that his country’s neighboring countries are sending “prisoners, murderers, drug traffickers, the mentally ill, terrorists, and their worst citizens” to the United States.
In his speech, which lasted about 45 minutes, yesterday evening, Tuesday, he also described illegal immigrants as “animals, not people,” in a repetition of the insulting language he has always used in his election campaigns.
The Republican candidate, who appeared with several law enforcement officers, also detailed several criminal cases involving suspects who are in the United States illegally and warned that violence and chaos would destroy the country if he did not win the November 5 elections.
He also used a similar tone, with a later speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin, calling the 2024 election the nation’s “final battle.”
“They are not human”
Speaking about Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who is alleged to have been killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Trump said some immigrants are not human.
Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, also added, “The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They are human beings.’ As for me, I say: No, they are not human beings. They are animals.”
“Extremist speech”
On the other hand, Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign communications director, told reporters before Trump’s two speeches, “Donald Trump is engaging in extremist rhetoric that promotes division, hatred, and violence in our country.”
In his controversial speeches, Trump has often claimed that immigrants who illegally cross the border with Mexico have escaped prisons and shelters in their home countries and are fueling violent crimes in the United States.
Meanwhile, the Democratic president accused his arch-rival in the presidential elections scheduled for November, of encouraging Republicans in Congress not to pass legislation this year that would have strengthened security on the southern border and introduced measures aimed at reducing illegal immigration.
The most important issue
These speeches about immigration come after this issue turned into an important and even fateful issue in the elections and among the competitors.
About 38 percent of Republicans considered immigration the most important issue in the country in a poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos in late February.
It is noteworthy that Michigan and Wisconsin are considered two swing states that could determine whether Biden or Trump will reach the White House next year.
Especially since in the 2020 elections, Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by less than one percentage point, and in Michigan by less than three percentage points, according to Agence France-Presse.
