Former President Donald Trump accused Venezuela and other countries of emptying their prisons and mental institutions and foisting their gang members onto the United States.
The presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee sat down with West Michigan Live with Justin Barclay on Monday to talk about "Biden migrant crime" and promised to deliver the "largest deportation in history" if he is returned to the White House in November.
"Now they're coming in, they're pouring in, the criminals from jails and from mental institutions, and terrorists, by the way, and at levels that no country has ever seen before," Trump said. "It's insane what they're doing. Insane."
He said countries like Venezuela have effectively solved their gang problems by exporting all the gang members to the U.S.
"They've taken all of their gangs, their gang leaders, every one of their gangs is gone now," the former president said. "They dumped them into the United States."
Trump said he would take the same approach if he were running the country.
"They emptied their jails from countries all over the world," he said. "I guarantee you the real crime rate all over the world is way down because — and I'd do the same thing if I were a dictator or a president running a country. I would do the exact same thing."
"First thing I'd do is I'd say, 'wow, I'd empty out every prison, I'd empty out every mental institution and that's what the countries are doing all over the world, and they're putting them in our country,' " he continued. "Biden is the worst president we've ever had."
During his discussion with Barclay, Trump also talked about the murder last month of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia, a Michigan woman who was allegedly killed by her illegal immigrant boyfriend who had been deported during his administration.
Trump is traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday to give a campaign speech on immigration in which he's expected to attack the southern border policies of Democrat President Joe Biden.
"Donald Trump is coming to Grand Rapids to do what he does best: divide, distract, and fearmonger, instead of doing something to address the issues that actually matter to Michiganders," Alyssa Bradley, the Michigan communications director for Biden's campaign, told Bridge Michigan.
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.