Trump Says Millions of Immigrants Are Criminals. Biden Says He’s Lying

The first presidential debate of 2024 featured former President Trump’s usual assertions on immigrants, calling them criminals and saying mental asylums were being emptied in foreign countries for people to come here.

President Biden pushed back, calling Trump’s statements lies and “malarkey.” Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S., studies show.

Trump, echoing comments he makes at his rallies, accused Biden of supporting open borders. “I’d love to ask him: why he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails and mental institutions to come into our country, and destroy our country,” Trump said.

“These killers are coming into our country. They are raping and killing women. It’s a terrible thing,” Trump said later.

Biden responded: “That’s simply not true. There’s no data to support what he said. Once again, he’s exaggerating. He’s lying.”

Trump tried to frame the border as a free-for-all and chaotic, and Biden pointed out that under Trump, children were being separated from their families after crossing the border.

“When he was president, he was taking, separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure that families are separated,” Biden said. “That’s not the right way to go.”

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