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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to impose stiff punishments – including the death penalty – on illegal migrants found guilty of committing heinous crimes.
“We will impose tough new sentences on illegal alien criminals, including 10-year mandatory minimum sentences for anyone found guilty of human smuggling; a guaranteed life sentence for any one found guilty of child trafficking; and a death penalty for anyone guilty of child or woman sex trafficking,” Trump said at a news conference in Cochise County, Ariz., just steps from the US-Mexico border.
“We’ll also impose the death penalty on major drug dealers and traffickers,” the 78-year-old former president added.
Trump also called for capital punishment for anyone convicted of killing “police, sheriffs, border patrol, ICE or law enforcement officials.”
“The death penalty with a quicker trial,” the Republican presidential nominee said, “not a trial that lasts for 15 years and everyone gets exhausted.”
“The amount of injuries sustained in fights and shootings is just incredible,” Trump said of the difficult and dangerous job law enforcement authorities face guarding the southern border.
Trump, flanked by law enforcement officials and family members of migrant crime victims, toured the remnants of sections of a border wall he approved during his presidency that was never erected once the Biden administration took control of the project.
The former president inspected the piles of steel sitting in the Arizona sun, seemingly rusting from neglect.
“It could have been put up in a matter of weeks. It was all set to go,” Trump said of the heaps of metal.
“It’s the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of walls,” he said, lamenting that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “refused to put it up.”
“That’s when I first realized they wanted open borders,” Trump explained, claiming that much of unused paneling “has been sold for five cents on the dollar.”
Grieving ‘Angel Moms’ Back Trump
Patty Morin’s 37-year-old daughter, Rachel, was brutally murdered on a Bel Air, Md., jogging trail last year.
A 23-year-old illegal migrant from El Salvador – suspected of other heinous crimes – allegedly killed the mother of five before stuffing her body in a drain pipe.
Speaking at the news conference, Patty expressed strong support for Trump’s plan to seal the border and crack down on migrant crime.
“We are 1,800 miles from the border,” Patty noted.
“And because of this open border, we’ve had two [cases] in the same county where illegal immigrants have come in and raped and murdered our citizens.”
“I really want our words to be heard,” she pleaded. “We’re here because we are losing our moms, our daughters, our children to criminals – and that shouldn’t happen.”
“This is a very very important issue,” Patty said of border security.
“One that is going to make or break our country.”
Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn, who police say was assaulted and murdered by illegal migrants in Houston, also spoke in support of Trump’s border policies.
“There were over 300 detention beds they should have been at,” Nungaray said of the two alleged killers, one of whom was wearing an ICE ankle bracelet at the time of the crime.
“They were detained and released when they shouldn’t have been released,” she argued.
“We are losing very innocent people to heinous crimes that shouldn’t be happening in the first place,” Nungaray fumed.
What Other Republicans are Saying
Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance spoke at a news conference in Georgia, just minutes before Trump’s border speech, touting the former president’s proposed agenda.
“Donald Trump believes that we ought to make our law enforcement lives easier by closing down that southern border and getting the drug cartels out of our communities,” the Ohio senator said.
He also warned changes to immigration laws backed by some Democrats and Republicans over the summer but opposed by Trump, would codify policies such as “catch and release.”
“This is where a person comes into our country, they claim asylum, and then they’re released into our country with no follow up. Sometimes they don’t come back for five years. Sometimes they don’t come back for 10 years,” Vance said.
“Kamala Harris and Joe Biden implemented catch and release through executive order, their so called border security package would have made catch and release the law of the land. So even if you have a guy like Donald Trump come in, he can’t undo it,” he added.
Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention Thursday, told reporters that he found it amusing that the Democratic gathering was surrounded by barrier to keep protesters out.
“I’m grateful that Democrats appear to now agree with Donald Trump’s policy of building a wall,” Ramaswamy quipped. “If only they cared as much about keeping illegals out of our country as they do keeping their own left wing protesters out of their own convention, our border crisis would actually be behind us.”
