Trump touts waterboarding

Donald Trump touts waterboarding, stokes immigration fears in border state

By Jeremy Diamond

Donald Trump on Sunday warned his supporters in this border state that Hillary Clinton "wants to let people just pour in," saying without evidence that hundreds of millions of people could enter the US under a Clinton presidency.

And speaking just nine days before Election Day, the Republican nominee also bemoaned criticism of waterboarding and appeared to once again call for bringing back the since-banned technique for use in the fight against ISIS.

"These savages are chopping off heads, drowning people. This is medieval times and then we can't do waterboarding? 'It's far too tough,'" Trump said, mocking critics of the technique used by the CIA in interrogations of terror suspects under President George W. Bush's post-9/11 administration.

Trump has previously called for reinstating waterboarding and "much worse" methods of torture if he becomes president.

"We have to be tough and we have to be smart. And we have to be in some cases pretty vicious I have to tell you," he added.

The Republican nominee also issued a dire -- and baseless -- warning to Americans that a Clinton administration could usher a flood of hundreds of millions of people crossing into the US.

"You could have 650 million people pour in and we'd do nothing about it. Think of it. That's what could happen. You triple the size of our country in one week. Once you lose control of your borders you just have no country folks, you have no country," Trump said, speaking in this Democrat-leaning border state.

Trump also stoked fears about undocumented immigrant crime, warning that continued illegal immigration would result "in the loss of American lives," even though undocumented immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than legal US residents.

Trump's stop here came a day before Trump stumps in Michigan, also a state likely to swing in Clinton's favor, as the Republican nominee and his campaign are hoping to make late gains to help secure the 270 electoral votes Trump needs to secure the presidency. Trump's stops in these blue-leaning states also helps bolster the campaign's message that Trump's candidacy is on the rise and that the campaign is going on the offensive the final slog to Election Day.