Trump pushes mass deportations in Latino-heavy Reading, PA

Former President Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his mass deportation agenda while campaigning in a Latino-heavy area of battleground Pennsylvania.

"On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history," Trump promised during a rally in Reading, Pa. "We're going to get them out."

"Dwight Eisenhower has the record" for deportations, Trump went on. "He was a very moderate kind of a guy who's a good general [and] a good president... did a good job, but he hated the concept of people pouring into our country, and he has the record, but we're going to, unfortunately, beat the records, not something I want to do."

"But this is not sustainable by any country. They're taking over your towns, your schools, your hospitals," he continued, before pointing to the influx of migrants into Springfield, Ohio, and the strain on the public infrastructure in that city.

"I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered," he said. "The United States is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer."

Trump's remarks come amid backlash from his Madison Square Garden rally in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke about Puerto Rico being a "floating island of garbage."

While news media seized on the comments and headlines ran questioning Trump's continued viability with Latino voters, he has brushed it off and continued with his messaging unaltered.