Donald Trump has increased his rhetoric against immigrants by claiming they are attacking “villages and cities” in America. The latest remarks represent an escalation by Trump as he seeks to gain votes by casting immigration as a threat to U.S. citizens. The comments follow his remarks on Haitians and other comments about immigrants at the presidential debate with Kamala Harris. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, also has increased his rhetoric against Haitians by calling them “illegal aliens” even if they are here legally and accusing them (incorrectly) of increasing the murder rate in Springfield, Ohio.
Trump’s Remarks In North Carolina
On September 21, 2024, at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump focused on what he said were dangers that immigrants posed to Americans. “And you see how bad it’s getting,” he said. “When you look at what’s going on with the migrants attacking villages and cities all throughout the Midwest, in particular right now, but it’s all over.”
Rather than describing people seeking work or refuge in another country, Trump’s language conjures images of immigrant armies traveling across the Midwest attacking Americans in “villages” like in the TV series Game of Thrones. It pairs with other rhetoric in his speech: “A vote for Kamala Harris means 40 or 50 million more illegal aliens will invade across our borders, stealing your money, stealing your jobs, stealing your life.”
Throughout the rally, Trump would return to criticizing immigration without acknowledging available information that might contradict his statements. He asserted he “fixed” the border. However, illegal immigration rose significantly while Donald Trump was president. Apprehensions at the Southwest border, a proxy for illegal entry, increased by more than 100 percent between FY 2016 and FY 2019 (from 408,870 to 851,508), according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. Border Patrol encounters declined after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Border Patrol encounters on the Southwest border increased from 16,182 in April 2020 to 69,032 by October 2020, a rise of 327%.
Despite Donald Trump’s criticism of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal entry, based on border arrests, was lower in July and August 2024 than during Trump’s last month in office. In January 2021, there were 75,316 Border Patrol encounters along the Southwest border. That is well above the 56,408 encounters reported in July 2024. In August 2024, there were 58,038 Border Patrol encounters.
Venezuelans In Aurora And Other Claims
A recent report by a Denver news station disputed Donald Trump’s assertion in Wilmington that “Venezuelan gangs had taken over entire apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado. The governor is petrified.” Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, said he was “excited” about the prospect of a Trump visit, but “I think it’s a great opportunity to show the president that we are not a city that is overrun by Venezuelan gangs.” Denver7 reported, “The mayor said he is not comfortable with the way Trump has portrayed Aurora. He said the narrative that has been spread has harmed the city.”
The mayor contributed to the claims about the apartment buildings, seized on by Trump, including at the presidential debate, but Coffman has backed away from his earlier statements. “My comments were based on the briefings that I received from the initial briefings that I received from law enforcement,” said Coffman. “I think we found since then that there are some elements of that briefing that are questionable. But at one point in time, we had a problem in a couple of apartment complexes that was real.”
Trump has not produced evidence to support his assertions that the Venezuelan government established a plan to send criminals to the United States. “There is no evidence that the Venezuelan government is systemically or selectively releasing prisoners and expelling them from the country,” reported the New York Times.
Trump has often said governments are emptying “mental institutions and insane asylums” to send migrants to the United States. CNN reached out to the Trump campaign in 2023, and it could produce no evidence to support this claim. Immigration experts have said it’s not realistic to expect that people with serious mental issues could endure the treacherous journey lasting thousands of miles north to the U.S. border or possess the necessary resources to do so successfully.
Trump also claimed residents of North Carolina cannot get into emergency rooms in the state because of “illegal aliens.” If this were true, one would expect to find significant news coverage of residents suffering or dying after being turned away at hospitals in North Carolina. In May 2024, CBS 42 reported on potential problems residents faced after a hospital in Martin County, North Carolina, closed due to “financial challenges related to declining population and utilization trends.”
The Trump-Vance Campaign Continues To Attack Haitians
CNN’s Daniel Dale refuted a recent claim by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, that Haitians are responsible for murders increasing in Springfield, Ohio. “Murders are up by 81% because of what Kamala Harris has allowed to happen to this small community,” said Vance.
“During the time that I’ve been with the prosecutor’s office, which is 21 years now, we have not had any murders involving the Haitian community—as either the victims or as the perpetrators of those murders,” Daniel Driscoll, the Republican top prosecutor in Clark County said in an interview with CNN. Dale also found, “Springfield had more total murders under President Donald Trump than under Biden-Harris.”
Analysts have become concerned about the increasing rhetoric, which they see as attempts to “dehumanize” immigrants. Donald Trump made derogatory rumors about Haitians a central argument against immigration during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said. “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”
Blaming immigrants for eating pets was an American urban legend years before Trump spread the rumor about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. “Do not too easily accept the statement . . . that Asian refugees barbecue pet dogs here ‘all the time,’” wrote folklore specialist Jan Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus at the University of Utah, in 1986. Brunvand found stories from the 1980s about Asian refugees eating pets that emerged in Stockton, California, Fairfax, Virginia, and elsewhere. None of the stories were found to be true.
Donald Trump has promised to visit Aurora and Springfield.