Trump calls the immigrant families he’s tearing apart 'animals'

Trump’s bigoted crusade against immigrants took another repugnant step on Wednesday, when he labeled people who have attempted to seek refuge in the United States as “animals.”

Speaking at a White House event attacking California for being welcoming to immigrants — a notion so ingrained in American tradition it is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty — Trump lashed out in typically hateful fashion.

“We’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are,” he insisted.

In fact, in Trump’s mind, the people coming here, desperate for a better life, are not even human.

“These aren’t people, they’re animals,” he sneered.

The Trump administration has ramped up the deportation of undocumented immigrants, following through on the anti-immigrant message Trump used throughout the presidential campaign. He infamously launched his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and calling for an unworkable wall to be built on the southern U.S. border.

In December 2017, he went after the immigration lottery system. “They give us their worst people,” he said of other countries, “the worst of the worst.” He was rebuked for that callous statement by Father James Martin, as well as former CIA Director and retired four-star General Michael Hayden.

But he has only gotten worse.

Trump recently implemented a harsh new policy through Attorney General Jeff Sessions that would rip families apart at the border. His administration is considering using military bases to hold the increased number of children the government will be tearing away from their parents.

Now, he’s made his hatred for immigrants even more clear.

But the people who are facing deportation are human beings, not “animals.”

They are families like Alexander Parker and Krisha Schmick of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, who had their wedding day ruined after ICE agents came for Alexander. His sin was that he was born in Guatemala and adopted and brought to the United States at eight months old.

He was fingerprinted, and agents threatened to take him to an immigration detention center. While he was eventually able to prove his residency, an immigration judge had the ability to cause complete disruption in his life.

The Trump administration has pushed for these judges to have near absolute power in their rulings, even for immigrant children.

Apparently, Trump also believes people like Jorge Garcia are also “animals.” Garcia was brought to America at 10 years old. Now 39, Garcia was separated from his wife and two teenage children and deported to Mexico.

His wife Cindy told ABC News the event left her “very sad, very depressed, emotional” ever since.

“It’s like a nightmare,” she added.

Another “animal” must have been Sergio Avila, the husband of Army officer Tim Martin Brown. Avila was detained by ICE and put through the process of being deported to Honduras, a country he had not seen since he was eight years old.

Brown pointed out that his husband was not only being separated from his family but being sent completely unprepared to a community “hostile to the LGBTQ community.”

In New Jersey, Vitor Pukri was sent back to Albania by ICE. He has lived in the United States for 17 years, married and fathered three children. His wife, Neta, has also been taken into ICE custody.

These are the so-called “animals” Trump has declared war on. Their families are the casualties of his indifference and bigotry.

Under the guise of keeping America safe, Trump himself has replaced traditional American values with ugly, animalistic impulses.