Election 2016: Donald Trump's Immigration Plans Criticized By Far-Right German Leader

Frauke Petry, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, had some harsh words at a news conference in Berlin Monday for the refugees flooding into Europe — even going so far as to say they should be shot to keep them from coming into the country. But now his attention has turned toward Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

Petry told the Wall Street Journal later Monday that Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims immigrating to the U.S., which he argued for in December after the San Bernardino shootings, was pointless and wouldn’t work.

“I find it very problematic to think that one can respond to complex problems — and the migration question is a very complex problem — with simple solutions,” Petry said in a news conference Monday. “There are already far too many oversimplifications in this discussion — we don’t need Trump on top of all that.”

“American campaigns are known for being even more polarizing, even more oversimplifying, than what we are used to in Europe and in Germany,” Petry went on to say.

Petry has also criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy. In 2015, German received more than 476,000 refugee applications, the BBC reported. Her party was polling at 4 percent during the summer but has since risen to 12 percent, despite Petry’s pronouncement that refugees should be shot by police to prevent them from coming into the country illegally.

Trump has also proposed building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to prevent illegal immigration, which he has said Mexico would pay for, CNBC reported. Trump’s comments about Mexicans came under harsh criticism last year.

"They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said in June.

Despite his controversial comments, Trump has remained a front-runner in the GOP race, winning the South Carolina primary this weekend. He has lost only one nominating contest so far in the race, and is expected to lead the pack again in Nevada on Tuesday, Reuters reported.