NEW YORK — A Univision network is dropping the Miss USA pageant and the company says it will cut all business ties with Donald Trump in a spiraling controversy over comments the Republican presidential candidate made recently about Mexican immigrants.

Univision said Thursday it would pull the plug on its Spanish-language coverage of the pageant July 12 by its UniMas network. It also has severed its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss USA pageant, due to what it called “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants” by Trump, a part owner of Miss Universe.

During his presidential campaign kickoff speech last week, Trump portrayed immigrants from Mexico as “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

He also called for building a wall along the southern border of the U.S. The remarks drew condemnation from the Mexican government as “biased and absurd.”

NBC is scheduled to air its own pageant coverage, as it has done since 2003, and has remained silent about the broadcast. But in a statement Thursday, the network sought to separate itself from Trump’s remarks.