Trump Conflates Undocumented Immigrants With MS-13, Claims They Want To ‘Infest Our Country’
Remember a few weeks ago when President Donald Trump and his allies were absolutely losing it over their claims that the president was taken out of context when he said “these are animals” during a roundtable discussion on Calfornia’s sanctuary laws? Team Trump claimed that he was specifically describing violent MS-13 gang members as animals, though going through a transcript of his comments definitely made it appear his remarks applied to all illegal immigrants who are deported.
With the administration currently facing intense bipartisan criticism over its “zero tolerance” immigration policy that has resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents, the president did what he does best on Tuesday morning — took to Twitter to shitpost. And at one point, he conflated MS-13 with undocumented immigrants.
Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2018
As you can see in the tweet above, Trump complained that the “Democrats are the problem” when it comes to immigration.
“They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13,” he wrote.
He finished up the tweet by tossing out one of hardline immigration hawks’ favorite talking points — Democrats see illegal immigrants as “potential voters.” (Watch any broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight and you’ll hear this parroted several times.)
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman pointed out that this shouldn’t go unnoticed following Trump’s insistence that he was taken out of context over his “animals” remarks.
This shouldn’t go unnoticed, especially after claims he was taken out of context re MS-13 before. Now it’s “illegal immigrants” and “infesting” before he gets to MS-13. https://t.co/3S8O7cU6Kw
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 19, 2018
It is apparent the president is using dehumanizing language to describe migrants, especially those coming to this country from Latin America. He is also making sure to associate immigrants with the violent few as a way to paint all of them as violent and how it is imperative that America close itself off to this threat.
Trump’s use of “infest” drew a lot of condemnation online:
"infest" like rats or cockroaches https://t.co/2diClsQTzG
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 19, 2018
“Infest,” “animals,” “changes their culture.” A parade of dehumanizing and nativist language. https://t.co/rd7Khmue5R
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) June 19, 2018
The President of the United States is using the word "infest" to describe the actions of a group of people. pic.twitter.com/RPKQEMNxWv
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 19, 2018
"they don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants…to pour into and infest our country"
when Trump said "animals," some got all precious, accused media of distorting his meaning, said he was only talking about MS-13. they were wrong. https://t.co/tgq7tUVwRo
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 19, 2018
