Donald Trump, without evidence, claims migrants in U.S. illegally 'building army' to attack Americans
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed without evidence on Thursday 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 U.S. illegally.
During a rally in the mainly Hispanic and Black neighborhood 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.»
Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeatedly used incendiary language to accuse immigrants in the U.S. illegally of fueling violent crime, calling them «animals» responsible for «poisoning the blood» of the country. As evidence, he points to individual instances of crimes, rather than aggregate data.
«We are not going to let these people come in and take our city away from us and take our country away,» Trump said, vowing to carry out «the largest criminal deportation operation in our country's history» if re-elected to the White House.
Trump also sought to tie record levels of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally with the economic plight of
