Trump makes scaremongering claims about immigration negatively 'changing culture' of Europe, while providing no evidence

'It’s a very sad situation, it’s very unfortunate, but I do not think it’s good for Europe,' says US president

(AFP/Getty )

Donald Trump has claimed that immigration is negatively “changing the culture” of Europe, but offered no evidence to back-up his remarks as he battles to justify his hardline stance on migration into the UK.

During a press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the president claimed that he believed immigration has been “very bad for Europe” adding that he knew it was not politically correct to talk about but he would “say it loud”.

Mr Trump gave no examples of why this is the case, as Ms May sought to talk about how immigration had benefited the UK. “The UK has a proud history of welcoming people,” Ms May said, saying that “overall immigration has been good for the UK.”

For Mr Trump, the scaremongering remarks were more likely aimed at his supporter base given the hardline stance on border crossings into the US since his election campaign in 2016. It helps his cause to portray immigration as a global issue which he is dealing with decisively stateside.

“You are changing culture, you’re changing security,” Mr Trump said of Europe.”Look at what’s happening to different countries that never had difficulty, never had problems. It’s a very sad situation, it’s very unfortunate, but I do not think it’s good for Europe, and I don’t think it’s good for our country.”

Mr Trump was quick to turn to the issues in the US, where his administration has faced weeks of backlash over its “zero policy” on illegal border crossings, whether for asylum or otherwise. The policy led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents, with any adult illegally crossing the border sent for prosecution, leaving the children they travelled with in the care of the US.

The issues at the border, which are now being settled in the courts after an executive order from the president halted the practice, has led to Mr Trump hardening his language over immigration. At the end of last month Mr Trump said that immigrants would “infest” the US without strong border laws, with a number of other examples of de-humanising language being used by the president since then.

He continued this theme during the press conference with Ms May, saying: “We have very bad immigration laws… we have laws that are so bad that I don’t even call them laws.”

Mr Trump added that he had made the recommendation to Europe to strengthen their immigration laws saying nations on the continent should “watch themselves”. As he has done a number of times, often falsely, Mr Trump linked the immigration issue to terrorism.

“You see the same terror attacks that I do,” Mr Trump said. “We see the a lot”. The president gave no context to the remarks, making no mention of the multitude of issues that could give rise to an act of terror.

Speaking so strongly about the issue will no doubt play well with Mr Trump’s base, amid a wave of criticism from Democrats and activist groups about the border separations. Aware that the issue will be an important one for the crucial midterm Congressional elections across the US in November, the president has sought to blame Democrats for the immigration issue, for not backing Republican fixes. He has also called on Congress to change US law.

For her part, Ms May also spoke about the need for a country to have control of their borders, an important issue in the Brexit debate over the UK leaving the EU, but her tone was more measured.

“What is important is that we have control of our borders,” she said. ”And that we have a set of rules that allow us to decide who comes into our country.”