Never one to let an opportunity to fearmonger on immigration go to waste, fourth-ranking House Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik announced plans to introduce a resolution promoting false “open border” rhetoric and attacking 2024 presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris with the made-up moniker of “Joe Biden’s ‘Border czar.’” Nevermind that Republicans killed their own border proposal because convicted felon and former President Donald Trump told them to. Stefanik has an agenda here, and she’s not about to let reality get in the way.
First, the facts, not that Republicans ever let facts get in the way of their xenophobia: the border has never been more resourced, crossings are down, and while the Vice President plays a role in the administration’s strategy addressing root causes of migration from Central America – something that Stefanik and other Republicans screaming about the border should actually be supporting as well – this notion that President Biden tasked her as a “border czar” and put her in charge of border policy is complete fiction from the right.
Stefanik’s cynical resolution, which could see action on the House floor this week, won’t do anything to address the border issues that Stefanik purports to care about. That’s one true story here. The other is that as Stefanik also claims that she’s “seen firsthand” the “disastrous consequences” of Biden’s immigration policy in New York, she’s repeatedly echoed white nationalist conspiracy theory that had real, deadly consequences in her home state in 2022.
In May of that year, 10 Black Americans shopping at a Buffalo supermarket were murdered by a gunman who espoused “invasion” and “replacement” rhetoric. This same fringe conspiracy theory had been echoed in Facebook ads purchased by Stefanik beginning the year before, America’s Voice noted. “Stefanik absurdly claims that bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows would create a ‘PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION,’” Senior Research Director Zachary Mueller wrote. “This is a soft version of the white nationalist ‘replacement theory,’ the racist fiction that migrants will destroy ‘western civilization’ and democracy.”
Stefanik continued to tout the conspiracy theory in the weeks leading up to the mass shooting, claiming on the podcast of former Trump administration official and white nationalist Steve Bannon (currently incarcerated for contempt of Congress) that “it is an invasion.” During a speech on the House floor in April, Stefanik claimed that “this has been an invasion” of our southern border. Then, just days before the deadly incident, she again claimed, “This is an invasion.”
Immediately following the mass shooting, Stefanik appeared to be more outraged over being publicly called out than over the fact that she was amplifying the same racist conspiracy theory that motivated the mass shooter. Hometown paper The Albany Times-Union also blasted Stefanik for her rhetoric in an editorial titled, “Ms. Stefanik on the fringe.”
“We do not draw a straight line from Ms. Stefanik to the Buffalo tragedy,” the editorial read. “But we do hold her responsible for using her public position to validate these reckless delusions that are increasingly finding their way from the fringe to the mainstream of the Republican Party. It poisons our political discourse. It poisons our society. And it poisons minds, turning certain confused, fearful and angry people into vigilantes, into mass shooters, into insurrectionist mobs.”
This white nationalist, antisemitic rhetoric has also taken the lives of our neighbors in cities including El Paso, Poway, and Pittsburgh. But rather than taking a sober reassessment of using such language, Republicans put it centerstage at the Republican National Convention last week, where attendees gleefully waved RNC-paid “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” signs and chanted “Send them back!”
In his remarks, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed we are facing “a literal invasion” and that Democrats have “cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children.” Let’s be clear: these dangerous replacement lies actively endanger our democracy and instigate the possibility of more political violence and attacks against immigrants.
Cruz’s lies were outrageous enough on their own but become even more sickening coming ahead of the fifth anniversary of a white nationalist-inspired massacre in his home state. House Speaker Mike Johnson also echoed some of these dangerous lies, claiming that we “cannot allow the many millions of illegal aliens they’ve allowed across our borders to harm our citizens, drain our resources, or disrupt our elections,” which Rolling Stone reported was “nodding to the Great Replacement conspiracy theory that Democrats are deliberately trying to flood the nation with immigrants to win elections.”
Stefanik’s actions are shameless but unsurprising. While she came to Congress pitching herself as a moderate, she’s risen within the ranks of her party’s leadership by becoming one the most vocal defenders of Trump’s dystopian vision and lies about the 2020 race, including echoing his belief that January 6 insurrectionists imprisoned for their crimes are “hostages.”
One glaring example of her fall from decency and democratic values: Stefanik was among Republicans to condemn the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally where neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not replace us” and counter-protester Heather Heyer was murdered by a white supremacist. “Hatred and bigotry have no place in our society,” Stefanik wrote at the time. “We stand united as Americans in condemnation of the violence in Charlottesville.” But following Trump minimizing this deadly rally as “a little peanut,” Stefanik said nothing.
Third-Ranking House Republican Continues to Push White Nationalist Talking Points in Facebook Ads
