Trump made the comments during a campaign event in New Hampshire where he railed against migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, which hit new highs in September….reports Asian Lite News
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, said on Saturday that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” repeating language that has previously drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing of Nazi rhetoric.
Trump made the comments during a campaign event in New Hampshire where he railed against migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, which hit new highs in September. Trump has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration if elected to a second four-year term in office.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told a rally in the city of Durham, adding that immigrants were coming to the US from Asia and Africa in addition to South America. “All over the world they are pouring into our country.”
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Trump used the same “poisoning the blood” language during an interview with The National Pulse, a right-leaning website, that was published in late September. It prompted a rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, whose leader, Jonathan Greenblatt, called the language “racist, xenophobic and despicable.”
Jonathan Stanley, a Yale professor and author of a book on fascism, said Trump’s repeated use of that language was dangerous. He said Trump’s words echoed the rhetoric of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who warned against German blood being poisoned by Jews in his political treatise “Mein Kampf.”
“He is now employing this vocabulary in repetition in rallies. Repeating dangerous speech increases its normalization and the practices it recommends,” Staley said. “This is very concerning talk for the safety of immigrants in the US“
In October Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung had dismissed criticism of the former president’s language as “nonsensical,” arguing that similar language was prevalent in books, news article and on TV. Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s remarks on Saturday.
US to suspend rail operations on southern border
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that it will temporarily suspend operations at the international railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, from Monday due to the continued surge in migrant crossings.
In a statement on Sunday, the CBP said the suspension, which will come into force at 8 a.m. (local time) on Monday morning, is “in order to redirect personnel to assist the US Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody”.
The agency further said that it is “continuing to surge all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the southwest border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals”.
“After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organisations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities.” it added.
The CBP went on to say that in the past few weeks, it has made a “number of operational adjustments in order to maximse our ability to respond, process, and enforce consequences”.
“In Eagle Pass, vehicular processing remains suspended at Eagle Pass International Bridge 1. In San Diego, California, San Ysidro’s Pedestrian West operations remain suspended. In Lukeville, Arizona, the Lukeville Port of Entry remains closed.
“We continue to adjust our operational plans to maximise enforcement efforts against those noncitizens who do not use lawful pathways or processes… and those without a legal basis to remain in the US,” it added.
Earlier Sunday, border authorities apprehended nearly 3,000 migrants in Del Rio, Texas, and around 1,300 migrants in El Paso, straining federal resources, CNN quoted a Homeland Security official as saying.
Eagle Pass is in the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector.
In the first 14 days of December, more than 37,000 migrants were apprehended in the Tucson Border Patrol Sector alone — which includes Lukeville.
Last month, border authorities apprehended about 192,000 migrants between ports of entry in November, a 2 per cent increase compared with the 188,000 migrant apprehensions in October.
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