Former President Trump told a crowd in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday that under the Biden-Harris administration, a new category of crime involving migrants has developed, and is "beyond control."
The Republican presidential nominee was expected to spotlight an economic argument against Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event at the Harrah's Cherokee Center's Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. It was Trump's second stop in the crucial southeastern battleground state in the three-and-a-half weeks since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democrats' 2024 ticket as the presumptive nominee.
While Trump spoke about price hikes under Harris costing the typical household $28,000, and credit card debt exploding to the highest it has ever been, he made sure to segue into the issue surrounding the border and illegal immigration.
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Trump said no country could sustain what is happening in the U.S. at this time, when millions of "illegal aliens" pour into the country from unknown countries.
"They all said I was wrong when I said that migrant crime will reach epidemic proportions, and now it’s much worse than that," Trump said. "It’s a lot worse than epidemic proportions. It’s beyond control. We have a new category of crime. It’s called migrant crime, and I think it’s gonna end up being the worst category of all."
He said in the past week, there have been situations involving migrants accused of rape, murder and other crimes.
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents located and arrested a Haitian immigrant who was previously released on a $500 bond despite facing charges of raping a child in Massachusetts.
The migrant, 26-year-old Cory Alvarez, allegedly raped a teenage girl at a Massachusetts motel that housed other migrants in March. He entered the U.S. lawfully in June 2023 in New York City, and was sponsored by someone in New Jersey.
A Nicaraguan migrant accused of raping a woman this week near a popular beach boardwalk in Brooklyn had an ICE detainer placed on him after he previously was arrested for sexual assault, but he managed to walk free after striking a deal with local prosecutors, a report says.
Daniel Davon-Bonilla, 24, had been out on the streets since June, when he was arrested late Sunday night for the alleged attack in Coney Island, according to the New York Post. The Big Apple is a sanctuary city, meaning local law enforcement generally does not cooperate with ICE detainers, which are requests that the agency be notified before the immigrant is released from custody and to keep them in custody until ICE can take custody of them.
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"Nothing good is going to happen from this," Trump said. "And now it’s getting more and more violent."
Fox News Digital reached out to both the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment.
Still, despite calling the migrant situation "beyond control," Trump told the crowd in Asheville he has a plan if he is elected.
"If Kamala wins, you will have mass amnesty and citizenship for all the Biden-Harris illegals that poured into our country," he said. "If I win, you will have the largest deportation operation in American history starting at noon on Inauguration Day 2025."
Fox News’ Greg Norman and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
