Milwaukee mayor blames Trump after acid attack on Hispanic man

The mayor of Milwaukee is blaming President Trump following an incident where a Hispanic man allegedly had acid thrown in his face.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the incident was “obviously” a hate crime and called it “simply wrong.”

{mosads}On Friday night, an attacker allegedly told Mahud Villalaz to “go back to your country” and threw acid, giving Villalaz second-degree burns.

The mayor said the president’s rhetoric on immigration is used to justify violence against Hispanic people, CNN reported.

“My concern is that more and more people feel that because the president is saying it that this is OK. It’s not OK, it’s horrible,” Barrett said, according to CNN.

“We know what’s happening. Everybody knows what’s happening. It’s because the president is talking about it on a daily basis that people feel that they have license to go after Hispanic people, and it’s wrong,” Barrett said.

He said in a media availability recording obtained by The Hill said he can’t directly connect this incident to Trump because he doesn’t know what was on the attacker’s mind. But he called the incident “a manifestation of that anger” toward immigrants.

“This anger towards people from other countries is being fed by our president and by his followers,” he said in the recording.

Surveillance video caught the incident, leading to a 61-year-old man’s arrest, according to the news network.

Milwaukee Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Sheronda Grant told The Hill on Sunday that the man was arrested Saturday, and charges will be brought to the district attorney’s office in “the next couple of days.”

Villalaz, 42, a welder, is a U.S. citizen originally from Peru. He told local TV station WISN that the argument started over parking. 

The incident is “being probed as a hate crime,” according to a statement from Milwaukee Alderman Jose Perez.

Updated at 5:51 p.m.