Former President Donald Trump made a baseless claim that thousands of Haitian migrants flocking to the US border at Mexico "probably have AIDS." He labelled their arrival a "death wish for our country."
In a televised telephone interview with Fox News on Thursday, host Sean Hannity questioned Trump about Covid-19 testing protocols for refugees. Responding to the question, the former President made several unfounded claims about immigrants and even spoke of a conspiracy by other nations against the United States.
Fearmongering Rhetoric
"So, we have hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti. Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. AIDS is a step beyond. AIDS is a real bad problem," he ranted. "Many of those people will probably have AIDS and they're coming into our country. And we don't do anything about it. We let everybody come in."
He added, "Sean, it's like a death wish. It's like a death wish for our country."
Trump also baselessly claimed that 50 countries were sending prisoners to the US-Mexico border.
"I hear it's 50 countries! They are emptying out their prisons into the United States," Trump claimed. "Their jails, some of the toughest people on earth are being dumped into the United States because they don't want them. They don't want to take care of them for the next 40 years."
This is not the first time Trump has made anti-refugee remarks. As reported by The Washington Post in 2018, Trump infamously called Haiti and African nations "sh**hole countries" during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers, and followed up by suggesting the U.S. welcome more immigrants from countries like Norway.
Mass Expulsion of Haitians Migrants from Texas
Last month, tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Haiti, set up camps in a Texas border town. Pictures of border guards using whip-like horse reins to threaten migrants from Haiti had raised concerns. There were horrifying images that showed United States border guards on horseback attempting to contain migrants at a riverside camp near the country's border with Mexico.
The images were slammed as 'inhumane' and 'horrific,' despite the Texas Border Patrol agents vehemently denying that they whipped migrants. Democrats also held a press conference demanding an end to "racism of how they're being treated", with Andy Levin tweeting "Haitian lives matter".
