Border Patrol in grim vid

A fictionalized video produced by the Border Patrol and posted this week to its YouTube channel shows a Spanish-speaking attacker stabbing and killing a man in a dark alley after escaping from US agents, a clip apparently created to dramatize President Trump’s depiction of migrants as fearsome criminals.

The three-minute video, titled “The Gotaway,” is produced in the visual style of a television show like Netflix’s series “Narcos,” with aerial drone footage, actors and fake blood. “Gotaway” is the Border Patrol term for an illegal migrant who evades capture.

The video ends with the lurid image of the stabbing victim bleeding and dying on the ground. “Every apprehension matters,” a message on screen reads. “Do you know who got away?”

The message fades to a Fox News headline about the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, followed by a rapid-fire cascade of other news clips and headlines about killings linked to immigrants illegally in the United States.

For years, Trump has delighted rally crowds with stories and claims about the gruesome crimes of migrants, after launching his 2016 campaign on his promise to build a border wall that would stop “rapists” and other criminals from entering the United States illegally.

Since then senior figures in his administration have directed Homeland Security officials to highlight crimes committed by immigrants. Research shows immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans.