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FACT CHECK: Immigrants are not drug dealers.

For Immediate Release: Oct. 20, 2016


Las Vegas, NV -- Tonight, Donald Trump doubled down on his racist claims that immigrants are drug dealers and his plans to build a wall to keep them out of our country -- ripping our families apart. This is nothing new, Trump has been making these claims and spouting racist rhetoric since the very start of his campaign.

  • Trump launched his presidential campaign with a speech describing Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems to us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." [The Telegraph, 6/16/15]

  • Trump dragged his feet on disavowing the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

    • Asked about being supported by Duke, Trump said, "People like me across the board….. Everybody likes me." [Bloomberg, 8/26/15, @6:10 Vice, 12/13/15]  "People like me across the board. Everybody likes me." [Vice, 12/13/15]

    • Trump declined three times to disavow support from white supremacist groups and former KKK leader David Duke. [Huffington Post,2/28/16]

    • Trump blamed his refusal to disavow David Duke’s support on a “bad earpiece.”“That Monday on NBC's ‘Today,’ Trump blamed his refusal to condemn Duke and the KKK on a lousy earpiece but continued to hedge against disavowing the support of ‘groups’ he doesn't know anything about. [NBC News, 2/30/16]

  • Trump said a judge should be disqualified just because of his Mexican heritage.

    • Trump spent more than 10 minutes at a rally attacking a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University for being a “hater” and “very hostile” to Trump, and mentioned that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana, “happens to be, we believe, Mexican.” [Washington Post, 5/27/16]

    • Trump doubled down on his attacks on Judge Curiel, saying he had “an absolute conflict” because Judge Curiel is “of Mexican heritage” and therefore could not be impartial because, Trump said, “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.” [Wall Street Journal, 6/3/16]

    • Trump repeatedly refused to back down from his attacks on Judge Curiel and his Mexican heritage. When asked by Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro why he continued to reference Curiel’s ethnicity, Trump said “Well, because his heritage is Mexican.” Asked if he needed to dial back his rhetoric, Trump said, “I have to be what I have to be.” [Politico, 8/10/16]

    • Trump’s comments were condemned by his fellow Republicans for being racist: “Some of Trump's GOP colleagues now say that they are unsure whether they can support him as their party's nominee based on rhetoric many have derided as racist, while others have criticized the remarks but continued to say that the party's goal is to elect Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton.” [NBC News, 6/9/16]

    • Trump also said a Muslim judge might be similarly biased, because of his call to ban Muslims: On CBS’s Face the Nation, the host John Dickerson asked Trump if a Muslim judge would be similarly biased because of his call for a ban on Muslim immigrants. Trump said: “It’s possible, yes. Yeah. That would be possible. Absolutely.” When Dickerson then said there was a tradition in the U.S. of not judging people based on their heritage, Trump’s response was, “I’m not talking about tradition, I’m talking about common sense, O.K.?” [The New York Times, 6/6/16]

    • Trump called for ban on all Muslims entering the United States: In a statement Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” [Donald Trump Press Release, 12/7/15]

    • Trump “celebrated” Cinco de Mayo by bragging on Twitter about the Trump Tower Grill “taco bowls” and saying “I love Hispanics.” [Twitter, 5/5/16]

    • Trump “joked” about being attacked by Mexico. During a campaign event in New Hampshire, when a plane flew overhead, Trump said, “That could be a Mexican plane up there. They’re getting ready to attack.” [Politico, 8/10/16]

    • Trump has said he would be open to profiling American Muslims. Trump said during an interview on CBS that although he hates “the concept of profiling,” when it comes to American Muslims, “I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country.” [CBS News , 8/10/16]

    • Donald Trump tweeted, then deleted, an anti-Hillary meme “that used dog-whistle anti-Semitism,” which originated from a neo-Nazi web forum. [Mic, 7/3/16]

  • Trump has repeatedly made offensive comments describing Black and Latino neighborhoods as “inner cities" filled with “broken homes,” while he simultaneously asks Black and Latinos voters “what they “have to lose” by supporting him. [Real Clear Politics, 8/22/16; Washington Post, 8/22/16]

  • During the first presidential debate, Trump said, “We have a situation where we have our inner cities —, African- Americans, Hispanics — are living in hell because it's so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.” [First presidential debate transcript, Washington Post, 9/26/16]

  • During the second presidential debate, Trump doubled down on his offensive language about Black and Latino neighborhoods, calling them "a disaster." [Second presidential debate transcript, New York Times, 10/10/16]

  • Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. — who is also an adviser and surrogate for the campaign — has repeatedly shared racist memes on social media. [Vanity Fair, 9/11/16]

    • Trump Jr. tweeted a a Trump-Pence branded meme comparing Syrian refugees to deadly Skittles. [Twitter, 9/19/16]

    • “Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles has deep roots. The concept dates back at least to 1938 and a children’s book called Der Giftpilz, or The Toadstool, in which a mother explains to her son that it only takes one Jew to destroy an entire people.” The campaign has yet to renounce or even apologize for his actions. [The Intercept, 9/20/16]

  • Donald Trump Jr gave an interview to a white supremacist radio host in March.. “appear[ed] on a white-supremacist radio show in May.” [Reuters,3/3/16[The Atlantic, 9/15/16]

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