Donald Trump claims migrants in US illegally ‘building army’ to attack Americans
- Former US president sought to portray migrants as a violent threat at a rally in New York City’s South Bronx
- Trump is trying to woo black and Hispanic voters in one of the most Democratic counties in the US
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed without evidence that immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere were “building an army” to attack Americans “from within”, once again using inflammatory rhetoric about migrants in the US illegally.
During a rally on Thursday in the mainly Hispanic and black neighbourhood of New York City’s South Bronx, Trump sought to portray migrants from China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries as a violent threat, even as studies show immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality.
“Almost everyone is a male and they look like fighting age. I think they’re building an army,” Trump said to a few thousand supporters who gathered to hear him in the South Bronx’s Crotona Park. “They want to get us from within.”
“African-Americans are getting slaughtered, Hispanic-Americans are getting slaughtered,” he said.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeatedly used incendiary language to accuse immigrants in the US illegally of fuelling violent crime, calling them “animals” responsible for “poisoning the blood” of the country.
