- The Washington Times - Tuesday, September 1, 2015

AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka on Tuesday blasted GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump for pushing an immigration agenda that he called “un-American” and “racist.”

“What Donald Trump started with immigration is disgusting,” Mr. Trumka told reporters at a breakfast meeting in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “It’s un-American and I think it’s racist.”

He warned that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and proposals to combat illegal immigration — which include building a wall along the United States’ southern border and deporting every illegal immigrant and their U.S.-born children, referred to by Mr. Trump and others as “anchor babies” — threatened to tear apart the country.

He said that Mr. Trump, whose tough talk on illegal immigration has helped push him to the lead of the GOP race, only rails against Mexican immigrants.

“He doesn’t refer to white immigrants. He doesn’t refer to Canadian immigrants,” Mr. Trumka said.

“When one of the candidates for a major party talks in an un-American, racist way, it becomes mainstream,” he said. “To say that one group of people is better than another group of people is bad for this country. It’s bad for America.”

Mr. Trumka didn’t use the word “illegal” when talking about immigration.

• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.

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