Former President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that people crossing the US-Mexico border are bringing with them contagious diseases.
‘They come in as terrorists. There are a lot of terrorists coming in, and people coming in with highly contagious diseases,” Trump said on Wednesday evening during his interview with New York radio station WABC.
‘You know, like you suddenly see that there’s a run on tuberculosis. There’s a run on things we haven’t talked about in this country for years,” Trump added.
Trump made similar claims in a September interview with The National Pulse about diseases brought in through the southern border, when he said illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“It is a very sad thing for our country. It poisons the blood of our country. It’s so bad and people are coming in with diseases. People come in with everything you can possibly have,” Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire in December.
In Wednesday’s interview, Trump again claimed that people crossing the border and entering the US speak unknown and unknown languages.
“We have no idea who they are or where they come from,” Trump said. “We have no idea. They speak languages that we don’t even know. There are people with languages we know nothing about. It’s insane,” Trump continued.
Much of Trump’s violent rhetoric about an out-of-control southern border is routine material for him, with the former president repeatedly claiming that people crossing the border come from “mental institutions” and “insane asylums.”
Trump regularly refers to increased migration from South and Central American countries and promises to impose stricter border rules. Last Saturday, Trump said during a speech at the NRA’s annual convention that if he were the leader of a South American country, he would send criminals and prisoners to America “faster than them.”
“Those in South America who are intelligently sending all their criminals, their prisoners and their gangs into our country,” Trump said. “I would do the same thing if I was there. I would do the same. I would do it faster than them,” he said.
While he pledged to strengthen and work closely with local law enforcement in border communities, Trump remained vague about the specific policies he would use to strengthen border security. This has not stopped Trump’s sharp criticism of Biden’s handling of the border — a key point of attack for Trump ads and fundraising emails.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
