A rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to send "criminals and people that don't work" out of the country, as he claimed other countries do when they send "caravans" to the United States, circulated online in late February 2026.
Users on social media platforms such as Facebook (archived) circulated the purported quote, claiming he made the comments during a speech to families who lost children to violence, allegedly at the hands of "illegal aliens."
The quote was correctly attributed to Trump.
The president spoke the words during a Feb. 23 speech at a White House event hosting "angel families," which the administration described as "honoring American lives tragically taken by criminal illegal aliens who never should have been in our country."
The White House posted a short montage of the event on YouTube, and the full ceremony is available to view on the "PBS NewsHour" YouTube page.
The comment in question occurred during Trump's remarks around the 33:45 timestamp in the video below, in which he stated (emphasis ours):
I'm not talking politics, I'm just talking life… It was a rigged election by millions and millions of votes. A guy that never left his basement, it was all run by crooked people. COVID was a little bit of a shield. They had a lot of things going on. But it was rigged by millions of votes. We did great in that election. If that election wasn't rigged, every single one of the people in this room right now would not be here. You'd be home with your son, daughter, family.
We had a strong border. You know, we solved it twice. We solved it in 2016. The border was bad. Nothing like it was this time. It was like beautiful compared to this time. This was legendary, in the history of the world there's never been a border like this where millions of people poured in. At least 25 million people. And many of them were the wrong people. Many. You know when countries fill up the caravans, they don't fill them up with their finest. I wouldn't. And I would do exactly what they did if the United States would be willing to take all of our criminals or people that don't work.
But they are smart people, I got to know them, most of those leaders. I said, "What are you doing?" They said, "Look, it was a totally open border." They saved hundreds of millions of dollars. They gave it to us and we've done a great job. Tom Homan. Kristi Noem. Our people have been incredible, the job they've done.
Trump also declared Feb. 22, 2026 as "National Angel Family Day." The date was chosen in memory of Laken Riley, a college student who was killed in February 2024 by a Venezuelan man who had entered the country illegally. (Jose Ibarra was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in November 2024.)
Following Riley's death, Republicans introduced the "Laken Riley Act," aimed at broadening the authority of immigration officers such as those who work for ICE. Trump signed the measure into law after his inauguration in January 2025.
The National Immigrant Project, an advocacy group focused on "those who are impacted by our immigration and criminal legal systems," wrote of the new law: "a person does not have to be convicted of any crimes to be forced into mandatory detention – even an arrest based on a false accusation or someone admitting that they committed a crime could be enough to detain them indefinitely until their immigration case is over."
Trump's February "angel families" event was held as anti-ICE protests continued throughout the country and surveys suggested public response to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown had soured considerably since the beginning of his second term.
For instance, a Marist poll conducted in February 2026 revealed that "65% of Americans, up from 54% in June of 2025, think the actions of ICE have gone too far in enforcing immigration laws." (The Marist Institute for Public Opinion was judged to have no discernible political bias by AllSides, a website that rates media bias.)
Trump's remarks during the event directly mentioned the public's growing negativity toward ICE and DHS, who said "they take nothing but abuse."