United States President Donald Trump on Thursday described deported immigrants as animals, Reuters reported. His statements drew criticism from those who accused him of not comprehending the problems of the people who enter the country illegally and having little sympathy for them, The Washington Post reported.

“We have people coming into the country — or trying to come in, we are stopping a lot of them — but we are taking people out of the country, you would not believe how bad these people are,” Trump said during a discussion on immigration at the White House. “These are not people, these are animals and we are taking them out of the country.”

The president said his government was cracking down on undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes.

This comment is the latest among Trump’s contentious statements. In January, Trump reportedly used the words “shithole countries” to refer to third-world nations from Africa, along with Haiti and El Salvador, in the Oval Office at the White House, according to a report in The Washington Post.

One of the Republican president’s major election promises was to build a wall across the US-Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country. He has also promised to reduce legal immigration by half.