WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday immigrants bring “a lot of bad genes” to the United States, while discussing murders allegedly committed by immigrants living illegally in the United States.

“How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers,” Trump said in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, while discussing the immigration policies of his Democratic opponent in the Nov 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris.

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“Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”

In a statement, the Trump campaign defended his comments, saying he was speaking only about murderers, not immigrants.

While there is little data about the immigration status of criminals, academic researchers say immigrants in the country illegally do not commit crimes more often than US-born or naturalised Americans.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024