Immigrants are bringing bad genes into US, Trump remarked.

Former President Donald Trump sparked controversy once again on Monday, claiming that illegal immigrants are bringing “bad genes” into the U.S. during a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt.

The remarks are part of Trump’s ongoing rhetoric on immigration, which has frequently been criticized for demonizing migrants.

Trump made these comments while attacking Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the upcoming presidential race. He referenced government data indicating that 13,000 immigrants with homicide convictions were not detained by federal immigration authorities.

Trump said, “How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers? Many of them killed more than one person. They are now living happily in the United States.” He added, “A murderer, it’s in their genes. We have a lot of bad genes in the country right now.”

The figures Trump cited appear to misrepresent data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released in September, which does not account for people held in non-ICE facilities and spans several decades, including when Trump was in office.

Trump’s remarks drew swift criticism. Conservative commentator Richard Hanania, though disagreeing with Trump’s 13,000 figure, supported the broader argument about crime and genetics but urged Trump to acknowledge the low crime rates among immigrants. Hanania said, “I don’t usually defend Trump, and even here, he’s wrong about the 13,000 released murderers. But he’s right that crime is largely genetic. He just needs to learn about immigrants’ low crime rates.”

Trump’s comments come as he and Harris remain neck-and-neck in the run-up to the November election, with immigration being a central theme of Trump’s campaign. At a recent rally, Trump called for Harris’s prosecution over President Joe Biden’s border policies, labeling immigrants as “animals” with intent to “rape, pillage, thieve, plunder, and kill.” He also falsely claimed that Haitian residents in Ohio were eating local pets and threatened them with deportation.

This isn’t the first time Trump has made incendiary comments about immigrants. In December, he was widely condemned for saying that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” drawing comparisons to Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.

Despite his controversial remarks, Trump remains competitive in the polls, making this election one of the most heated in recent history.