Trump to police: Be tougher on illegal immigrants

US President Donald Trump has said that police force should be tougher on undocumented immigrants who are arrested and taken into custody.

Trump made the remarks on Friday during his visit to Suffolk County, New York, where he highlighted his administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and violent crime.

He said gang members, including the one known as MS-13, which has terrorized communities on Long Island and in other parts of the US, should be deported from the country “a lot faster.”

“They’re animals. We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful, vibrant people.”

He called on Congress to allocate money to pay for 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers "so that we can eliminate MS-13" which is believed to have originated in Los Angeles immigrant communities in the 1980s, but then entrenched itself in Central America when its leaders were deported.

“When you see these towns, and you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see ’em thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’ ” Trump told the audience that included federal and law enforcement personnel from the New York-New Jersey area.

Despite what Trump suggested, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement there are strict rules and procedures to follow on how prisoners should be handled.

"Violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously. As a department, we do not and will not tolerate roughing up of prisoners."

Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and keep Latin American immigrants from illegally entering the country by making a wall on the border with Mexico.

As the first step to deliver on one of his most divisive campaign pledges, he signed a directive to begin the construction of the wall just less than a week after taking office in Washington and vowed to force Mexico to pay for the wall. The Mexican government has strongly rejected the disbursement.

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