From 'rapists' to 'eating the pets': Trump has long used degrading language toward immigrants (original) (raw)
Railing against undocumented immigration has been a consistent feature of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, going back to his very first one.
On the day that Trump launched his first presidential bid in June 2015, he accused Mexico of “not sending the best” people.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting,” he said, setting the tone for his MAGA movement.
Since then, spanning three campaigns and four years in the White House, Trump has continued using inaccurate, derogatory and often racist language to refer to immigrants coming from all over the world. In the latest iteration, he accused Haitian immigrants in Ohio of stealing and eating people's pets.
A look at the type of language Trump has used:
Impure
Some of Trump’s comments mirror language used by white supremacists, such as his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country. Adolf Hitler used the term “blood poisoning” in “Mein Kampf” to criticize the mixing of races.
“So, we have hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti. Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. ... Many of those people will probably have AIDS, and they’re coming into our country. And we don’t do anything about it, we let everybody come in. ... It’s like a death wish for our country.” [10/7/21]
“I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country.” [12/16/23]
Not human
Trump’s derogatory comments are often targeted at nonwhite immigrants; in 2018, he referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries.” His latest claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio have no basis in fact and were pushed, in part, by a neo-Nazi group.
“They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13.” [6/19/18]
“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.’”[4/2/24]
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.” [9/10/24]
Dangerous
Trump frequently ties undocumented immigrants to a spike in crime. But data does not support a migrant-driven crime wave in America. There’s no proof that there are “millions” of people from prisons and mental institutions coming into the country.
“The ones we are getting are the drug lords, we’re getting the gang members, and we’re getting some people that are fine, but we’re not getting the best and finest from South America, believe me.” [4/22/15]
“But if they’re here, they [Syrian refugees] have to go back, because we cannot take a chance. You look at the migration, it’s young, strong men. We cannot take a chance that the people coming over here are going to be ISIS-affiliated.”[11/17/15]
“At this very moment, large well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an invasion. … These are tough people in many cases; a lot of young men, strong men and a lot of men that maybe we don’t want in our country. … This isn’t an innocent group of people. It’s a large number of people that are tough. They have injured, they have attacked.” [11/1/18]
“They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums, that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff. ... Hannibal Lecter, anybody know Hannibal Lecter?” [3/4/24]
“They’re coming in from China — 31, 32,000 over the last few months — and they’re all military age and they mostly are men. And it sounds like to me, are they trying to build a little army in our country? Is that what they’re trying to do?” [4/13/24]
Joe Biden is “letting millions of people from jails, from prisons, from insane asylums, from mental institutions, drug dealers, pour in.” [5/29/24]
“We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it’s taking place right now, as we sit here in this beautiful arena. It’s a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease and destruction to communities all across our land.” [7/19/24]
“Not only is Comrade Kamala allowing illegal aliens to stampede across our border, but then it was announced about a year ago that they’re actually flying them in. Nobody knew that they were secretly flying in hundreds of thousands of people, some of the worst murderers and terrorists you’ve ever seen.” [9/13/24]
Destroying American jobs and way of life
Trump faced significant criticism after the first 2024 presidential debate for suggesting that Black and Hispanic people have only certain types of jobs. Data has also shown that immigrants are helping to boost the U.S. economy and largely are not taking the jobs of U.S.-born citizens.
“This is country-changing, it’s country-threatening, and it’s country-wrecking. They have wrecked our country.” [4/2/24]
“They’re taking Black jobs now and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking Black jobs, and they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.” [6/27/24]
“They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in, practically.” [9/10/24]
Trump’s comments have been a core part of his appeal to voters since he started campaigning in 2015, helping him first gain a foothold with the Republican primary voters most concerned about immigration and then expand to a wider following.
Some Latino voters have been drawn to Trump: He and Republicans have made gains in the demographic since his first presidential run in 2016, according to exit polls and other surveys.
In a statement, Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly pointed to data about types of undocumented immigrants coming into the country.
“President Trump says the truth: the Harris-Biden administration has allowed over 350 terror suspects to cross the border into our country, nearly 16,000 illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions have been apprehended trying to cross the border, and nearly 3,500 unvetted illegal immigrants are being released into the U.S. everyday,” she said. “Americans, including Hispanic Americans, overwhelmingly support President Trump’s plan to secure the border, and they are ready to Make America Safe Again on November 5.”
According to a review by NBC News, encounters with noncitizens with criminal records was 64,000 under Trump and 112,000 under Biden. Encounters on the border with people on the terror watchlist was 1,432 under Trump and 1,809 under Biden.
Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, said he believes Trump’s “rhetoric on the campaign this cycle is much, much, much more targeted” at pitting groups against each other.
“It is divisive politics, as divisive as you could possibly get, and probably as divisive as we’ve ever seen in a generation,” Proaño added.
LULAC endorsed Harris last month; it was the first presidential endorsement in the group’s 95-year history. LULAC just released a report showing that anti-immigrant legislation has surged by 357% since 2020.
Trump’s rhetoric “really creates a significant chilling effect and impacts our communities. ... But my big concern is, gosh, what happens if he comes into office? Proaño said. "I take him at his word that he says he’s going to cut taxes, so I have to take him at his word when he says he’s going to deport up to 15 million Latinos."
Amanda Terkel is politics managing editor for NBC News Digital.
Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Julia Ainsley
and
Didi Martinez
contributed
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