Meeting with African-American leaders in Philadelphia ahead of a visit to a black church here, Donald Trump said he’s the “only hope” for people dealing with crime committed by immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
“We’re the only ones that know what’s going on with illegal immigration,” Trump said as he met with a woman who said her daughter was killed by gangster wannabes. “Hillary Clinton has no clue, and doesn’t care.”
Shalga Hightower, said her daughter Iofemi, then 20, was robbed, sexually assaulted and murdered in 2007 by a group of gang initiates and that two were in the country illegally. She said they all got life sentences.
“But they should have never been here,” Trump said.
“But they should have never been here, absolutely,” she replied.
She said she started a 501(c)(3) in her daughter’s memory “to bring the awareness of gang violence as well to help support other families who are gonna be affected by illegal immigrants.”
Trump called her an Angel Mom, like the families he invited onstage in Phoenix who said they had lost family members to immigrants who were in the country illegally.
“These are people who shouldn’t be in the country,” he said again.
Hightower thanked Trump for honoring her daughter, telling him he was “the first person to step up and actually give her recognition, and I truly, truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Trump told her her daughter “will not have died in vain because people are seeing what’s going on. They’re seeing it all over the country. And we’re making people aware of it. A lot of people don’t even know. They have no idea of the consequence of these people coming in, and they shouldn’t be here.”
Trump met with a group of campaign-chosen supporters, who insisted that he has backing in the black community, although polls show the numbers are negligible. He’s argued that Democrats take African-American voters for granted and they should take a chance with him.
“People say, ‘Mr. Trump, that you have no African-American support.’ We want you to know that you do. All right?” said Renee Amoore, a Pennsylvania Republican and former chair of Gov. Tom Ridge’s advisory committee on African American Affairs. “You have a lot of support. We thank you for taking a step out in faith, to run for this position.”
Trump met privately with the group, and Daphne Goggins, Republican leader of the 16th Ward in Philadelphia, told him after the meeting: “What you’re saying about the Democratic plan – that plantation that they want black people on? It’s the truth. I will say it again.”
Lesley Clark: 202-383-6054, @lesleyclark