"We don’t want those people in our country. We have tremendous violence," said President Donald Trump. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Immigration Contradicting border chief, Trump claims 3 officers ‘very badly hurt’ by migrants

President Donald Trump, back on the campaign trail for the first time since the midterm elections, made a slew of dubious statements Monday about Central American migrants at the southern border.

Speaking with reporters in Mississippi, where he held two rallies for Republican Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith, the president claimed that three border patrol officers “were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and stones” Sunday during a melee with migrants attempting to enter the United States at a border crossing in San Diego.


“We’ve had some very violent people and frankly we don’t want those people in our society,” Trump said, according to a pool report. “We don’t want those people in our country. We have tremendous violence.”

Trump’s account contradicted U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who said in a statement Monday that agents and officers “effectively managed an extremely dangerous situation involving over 1,000 individuals,” adding: “They did so safely and without any reported serious injuries on either side of the border.”

In returning to the heated immigration rhetoric he had emphasized in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, the president also promulgated a theory about “grabbers” of children at the southern border, in reference to images of migrant children and parents seen fleeing clouds of tear gas dispersed this weekend by U.S. authorities.

Morning Shift newsletter Get the latest on employment and immigration, every weekday morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“You really say, why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it’s going to be formed and they’re running up with a child?” Trump said. “In some cases, you know, they’re not the parents. These are people, they call them grabbers.”

The president later clarified: “It’s a term that’s used because, as you know, many people, it’s a very violent, horrible thing, that they feel they have an advantage when they’re with a young child, and they call them grabbers.”

Without providing supporting evidence, Trump asserted that “over 500 people” within the migrant caravans are “serious criminals and gang members,” remarking that “the violence is very strong” and speculating that someone was “organizing” the mass migrations through Mexico.

“I suspect because of how well the country’s doing we have a lot more people coming and it does seem to be organized,” he said. “Somebody’s organizing this. This doesn’t just happen by luck.”