O’Malley calls Trump an ‘immigrant-bashing carnival barker’

Moderator Kevin Cooney asked O’Malley if he was willing to compromise on immigration, focusing on border security first, in light of Republicans saying securing the border is a top priority and Democrats calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

“Mr. Cooney, we’ve actually been focusing on border security to the exclusion of talking about comprehensive immigration reform,” O’Malley said. “In fact, if more border security and more and more deportations were going to bring our Republican brothers and sisters to the table, it would have happened long ago.”

“The fact of the matter is, and let’s say it in our debate because you’ll never hear this from that immigrant-bashing carnival barker Donald Trump,” O’Malley said, to applause and a smile from Hillary Clinton.

During his campaign, Trump has made immigration a major platform, calling for illegal immigrants to be deported, a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border and has labeled illegal Mexican immigrants “rapists” and criminals.

“The truth of the matter is net immigration from Mexico last year was zero,” O’Malley said. “Fact check me. Go ahead, check it out. But the truth of the matter is if we want wages to go up, we’ve got to get 11 million of our neighbors out of the out-of-the-books shadow economy and into the full light of an American economy.”

“That’s what we need to do as a nation,” O’Malley added. “Yes we most protect our borders, but there is no substitute for having comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people, many of whom have known no other country but the United States of America. Our symbol is the statue of liberty, it is not a barbed wire fence.”

Soon after Trump sounded off on his official Twitter account, blasting all three Democratic candidates, including a particular jab sent O’Malley’s way: