In another chaotic and rambling campaign address, Donald Trump incorrectly claimed that “nobody speaks the languages” of migrants crossing the US’s southern border, reiterating past remarks that were lambasted for being reminiscent of Nazi propaganda.
On Thursday, both Mr Trump and President Joe Biden made separate campaign trips to the southern border in an attempt to reclaim the immigration narrative.
Speaking from Eagle Pass, Texas, the former president made a startling allegation that “millions of people from unknown places” were entering the United States and “don’t speak languages.“
“Everybody I speak to says how horrible it is, nobody can explain to me how allowing millions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don’t speak languages,” he went on to remark.
“We have languages flowing into our country, but nobody speaks them. These are actually foreign languages. “No one speaks them.”
The national language of Mexico is Spanish. According to 2019 census estimates, about 42 million individuals in the United States speak Spanish at home.
Mr Trump’s verbal statements come as border officials have reported an increase in the number of people crossing the US-Mexico border, with Republican states relocating thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities.
In other statements on Thursday, the former president attacked what he referred to as the “Joe Biden invasion,” claiming it has resulted in an increase in “migrant crime” and explicitly tying it to the death of Georgia college student Laken Hope Riley.
He also alleged that people from jails and mental hospitals around the world are being released into the United States, adding, “They’re coming from jails, prisons, mental institutions, insane asylums, and terrorists.”