CNN —
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed illegal immigrants at a campaign rally in Arizona, saying the United States is “a dumpster for the world.”
“We’re a dumpster. We’re a dumpster to the world. That’s what happened,” Trump said at an event in Tempe, criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border crisis.
“Every time I come here and talk about what they did to our country, I get more and more angry,” he continued. “The first time I said trash. But you know what? That’s a very accurate description.”
The remarks, less than two weeks after Election Day, mark the latest escalation in anti-immigrant rhetoric from President Trump, who has made border security a central part of his return to the White House.
Mr. Trump, who has dehumanized illegal immigrants since his 2016 campaign, has tried to paint them broadly as murderers, people from “insane asylums” and dangerous people, while During my activities, I have always said the following: An invasion is occurring. He has promised to crack down on immigration if re-elected, saying earlier this year that he wants to deport between 15 million and 20 million people, far more than the 1.5 million he did during his presidency.
He has also made repeated unsubstantiated claims that Haitian immigrants are eating the pets of residents of Springfield, Ohio, a claim first agitated by his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. It was. And earlier this month, President Trump suggested that illegal immigrants who commit murders have “bad genes.”
In the final stages of the campaign, Mr. Trump focused on immigration, telling voters that closing the border and expelling people who crossed illegally was the country’s most pressing priority. During that time, he repeatedly blamed his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, for the influx of illegal immigrants, including inaccurately labeling her as “in charge of the border.”
The Biden-Harris administration has seen record numbers of illegal border crossings, and the administration announced in June that it would restrict access to asylum for immigrants who cross the border illegally, using the same powers that President Trump sought to use under his administration. The flow has begun to shrink since it was cut off significantly. his tenure.
At a CNN town hall on Wednesday, Harris was asked if the Biden administration should have taken action on the issue sooner, stressing that “the American immigration system is broken” and calling for Congressional superpowers. He insisted that partisan agreement was needed.
She contrasted this with President Trump’s record on border security, where the former president was invited to a CNN town hall but declined to participate, but he also made promises to build a border wall on the U.S. southern border and make Mexico independent. I laughed at him for not being able to fulfill his goals. Please pay it.
Harris also rejected her belief that she is soft on border security and immigration, saying that in order to obtain U.S. citizenship, “people have to earn it” and that she “wants to strengthen our borders.”
CNN’s Steve Contorno contributed to this report.