Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that reversing the Harris-Biden administration's immigration policy would be “very difficult” and predicted that opponents of his deportation plan would resort to propaganda.
“We'll get some people, we'll kick them out, and they'll also get somebody who looks nice and has kids — and that'll be the poster. 'How awful,'” Trump said. He told attendees at a rally in Atlanta how he expected his opponents to react to his Day One pledge to launch “the largest deportation program in the United States.”
“It's a very difficult thing to fix, but we're going to fix it because we have no other choice,” the former president added.
Trump, 78, told Georgia voters he would “start with a horrible criminal,” raising the case of Laken Riley, who was killed in February in the Peach State by suspected Venezuelan immigrant gang members. He said he intended to do so.
“Laken was a brilliant young student, top of her class, and would become a great nurse, a nursing student. Everyone admired her,” Trump said.
“She was brutally murdered while jogging,” he added. “She was assaulted, beaten and brutally murdered by illegal immigrants.”
“The savage monster that killed Laken was infiltrated into our country by Kamala Harris and released,” the former president claimed. “He came in through an open border. No one even checked on him.”
“I can't believe how they allowed this country to get to this point. It can't go on like this.”
During his campaign, President Trump took time to meet with several families of immigrant crime victims, including Riley's mother, and expressed that the level of pain she had suffered was unimaginable.
“All of these parents will never be the same,” he said.
Riley's brutal killing is part of why President Trump insisted on Tuesday that border policy is “more important than inflation” ahead of Election Day.
The Republican candidate admitted that largely vote He suggested that the economy and inflation were more important issues for voters, but he argued that there should be more immigration because of immigrant crime.
“Look, inflation and the economy have always been big, and what they've done to our economy, but I think the border and illegal immigration and 21 million people, many of whom are criminals, are even bigger. “I really believe that,” he said.
President Trump cited shocking federal data showing that more than 15,000 immigrants living in the United States illegally have been convicted or charged with murder.
“They live happily in Georgia,” he said of the immigrant “murderers” roaming the streets.
“They're all over the country. And these are murderers. People who would kill you in a heartbeat. They don't need too many excuses,” President Trump said.
Early voting began Tuesday in Georgia.
President Trump said he was “hearing very good things” about how the vote was going.
The state is scheduled to cast 16 electoral votes in November.
Mr. Trump leads Ms. Harris in the Peach State by less than 1 percentage point, according to RealClearPolitics' latest polling average.
