GOP candidate falsely claims immigrants attacked 'tens of thousands' of kids in his state

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R) recently attacked local law enforcement officials and the man whose job he hopes to take next year for allowing “sanctuary cities” in his state.

He also painted undocumented immigrants as rapists and murderers before making the stunning claim that “tens of thousands” of kids in his state had been attacked by migrants.

At Nov. 25 immigration roundtable, Forest — who is running to challenge Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper next year — complained that several communities in the state were not partnering with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and that Cooper vetoed a bill to require local sheriffs to collaborate with ICE.

The comments were first flagged by the liberal opposition research group American Bridge 21st Century.

During the roundtable, Forest scolded reporters covering the event for not using dehumanizing language to describe undocumented immigrants.

“Please, as you’re writing your stories for this evening’s paper or this evening’s news and you want to tell your community what’s going on with this situation, please think carefully about what words you use,” Forest said. “Many of you are going to be struggling, trying to not use words like ‘illegal’ and ‘alien’ and words like ‘criminal’ and ‘rapist’ and ‘murder’ and ‘child sex offender.'”

He then offered a shocking and unsourced claimed that there were “tens of thousands of children in our state that have been victims of these [undocumented] violent criminals already” who will “grow up with that on their mind.”

Forest’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry asking the source of this claim.

The fact-check site Snopes recently debunked a similar false claim that 10,800 children were raped by undocumented immigrants in 2018 nationally, but North Carolina crime statistics show just about 2,000 reported rapes of all kinds in the state annually.

Spokespeople for the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, Department of Public Safety, and State Bureau of Investigation said they had no data to confirm Forest’s numbers.

Study after study has shown undocumented immigrants as a group commit fewer crimes than the rest of the population.

In recent years, several sheriff candidates in North Carolina and elsewhere were elected on a specific platform of ending coordination with ICE. A September Pew Research survey found it was the only federal agency with a net unfavorable rating, with 54% of American adults disapproving of ICE.

Back in June, Forest warned that the “diversity and multiculturalism that America faces today” could destroy the country.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.