Count me as one of those Americans who is troubled by the use of the term “infest” when referring to human beings.

Yet, that is how Donald J. Trump referred to illegal immigrants. They “infest” this country by trying to sneak across our border illegally.

Never mind their motive for seeking entry into the Land of Opportunity. Search for a better life? Escape from persecution? Reuniting with family members already here?

Nope. They are seeking to “infest” this country.

This is the individual who attached a moral equivalence between white supremacists/KKK members/neo-Nazis with those who protested against them in Charlottesville, Va., this past year. Do you remember how he said there were “fine people … on both sides” of that hideous riot?

This man, the president, once called for the death penalty for five young men who were exonerated for the crime of beating and raping that woman in Central Park, New York City.

Let us not forget how he continued to foment the lie that the nation’s first African-American president, Barack Obama, was born in Africa and was not qualified to run for he office to which he was elected twice.

The common denominator? Race.

Now he is saying that those who enter the United States illegally from Latin America are seeking to “infest” this country. What in the name of human decency is he saying here?

To my ear, he is labeling every single immigrant — yes, those who are undocumented — as coming here to commit violent crimes, to engage in rape, murder, human trafficking.

At minimum, the president is casting these individuals in starkly unfair terms. My fear is that he knows precisely what he is saying and that the term “infest” comports with his deep, dark and sadistic view of what lures these fellow human beings to the United States of America.