Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Tuesday criticized President Trump’s immigration policies and the language he uses to refer to immigrants.
“To be clear, immigrants, legal or not, are people who want to improve their lives. To refer to them as animals or insects is to foster hate,” Albright tweeted. “What’s happening in Washington and on our border is sad, wrong, and unamerican.”
In his weekly address on Saturday, Trump accused House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of trying to protect MS-13 members, whom he referred to as “animals.”{mosads}
“MS-13 gang members are truly, and you’ve heard me say it, animals — and yet Nancy Pelosi and Washington Democrats continue to protect them and to push for open borders,” Trump said.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Democrats want immigrants in the country illegally to “infest” the U.S.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13,” the president tweeted.
Albright, a vocal critic of the president, said in April that Trump was the “most undemocratic” president in U.S. history and recently said Trump’s immigration policies were “un-American and appalling.”
Trump is receiving mounting criticism for his administration’s “zero tolerance” policies that have led thousands of migrant children to be separated from their parents when they are arrested at the border.
Democrats and Republicans have spoken out against the policy while the Trump administration continues to defend it by arguing they are merely enforcing the law.
Trump has also falsely tried to blame Democrats for his administration’s policy, which he has the power to end.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said that the policy would increase the number of family separations and added that it was meant to deter more migrants from attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.