“Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent,” Carson told POLITICO in a statement through business manager Armstrong Williams.

The comment comes as the presumptive Republican nominee faces scrutiny from members of his own party over comments that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, born in Indiana to Mexican parents, should not be allowed to preside over Trump University cases. Trump has said Curiel has an “inherent conflict of interest” due to the billionaire’s proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and he has similarly suggested a Muslim judge could be disqualified by virtue of his call to temporarily ban Muslim immigration.