New York, New York - Donald Trump told a rally Wednesday he will visit the Ohio town that has become a center of racist fear-mongering ever since his campaign began promoting false allegations that immigrants there were eating people's pets.

The Republican presidential nominee told supporters that he would visit Springfield, Ohio, "in the next two weeks."

"I'm going to Springfield and I'm going to Aurora," he added, referring to the Denver suburb in Colorado where Trump has repeatedly – and falsely – claimed that Venezuelan gang members have violently taken over the city.

"You may never see me again, but that's OK," he said, as the crowd laughed.

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Trump made the announcement in a speech on New York's Long Island that was filled with relentless attacks on immigrants, describing them as "animals," terrorists, criminals, and gang members who are allegedly destroying Americans' way of life.

Such racist and violent rhetoric has become a centerpiece of Trump's election campaign against Kamala Harris, as he seeks to paint the Democratic vice president as soft on immigration and responsible for allowing millions of people into the US under her watch.

"We have massive numbers of terrorists coming in to our country," he said, one of several unfounded comments about immigrants he made during a rambling speech in a sports arena.

"We're going to take those violent people and we're going to ship them back to their country, and if they come back in, they're going to pay a hell of a price."

Harris, speaking to a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute meeting, said that as president she would work to "ensure our border is secure" while also protecting young undocumented migrants through government programs.

"We can do both, and we must do both," she said.

Since accepting the Democratic nomination, Harris has promoted a so-called "border security" package which would send even more law enforcement to the borderlands and increase ICE detention capacity.