Lara Trump is facing a backlash from social media users after suggesting people on the southern border "arm up" and "take matters into their own hands".
The daughter-in-law of former president Donald Trump made the comments on Saturday (June 12) during her appearance on Fox News.
Speaking to host Judge Jeanine Pirro about President Biden's response to the recent surge of immigrants seeking asylum along the US-Mexico border, the 38-year-old former television producer told Pirro:
"I don't know what you tell the people who live at the southern border.
"I guess they better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe they're going to have to start taking matters into their hands."
Speaking of the immigrants crossing the border, Trump - the wife of Eric Trump - then added: "These people should never make this dangerous journey here."
After a clip of the interview was shared to social media, many Twitter users bashed Trump for making the comments, with some accusing her of inciting violence against immigrants.
Democratic candidate Russell Foster responded by tweeting: "This is dangerous. The former president's daughter-in-law is calling for people to shoot immigrants. It's worse after multiple mass shootings over the last few days in Texas & elsewhere.
"This could lead to an uptick in hate crimes across the country."
Tweeting a link to Cornell Law School's 'Solicitation to commit a crime of violence' page, the Executive Director of Project Lincoln Fred Wellman wrote: "Incitement to violence"
Several users even tagged the FBI's official Twitter account and called for them to investigate:
Per The Washington Post, 180,034 migrants were intercepted by US authorities along the Mexico border in May.
Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Nightly News' Lester Holt and stated: "We have to deal with what's happening at the border."
However, she then explained in finer detail: "We have to understand that there’s a reason people are arriving at our border and ask what is that reason and then identify the problems so we can fix it."
The Vice President then explained that immigrants are fleeing their nations due to issues in their countries, such as violence, draughts, and the ongoing pandemic.