The extremists in the House GOP who want to shut down the government over immigration are not concerned with America’s security rather their fight over America’s purity. That’s right: GOP extremists are battling over who can be the most anti-immigrant and the most aligned with white nationalist conspiracy theories about elites importing immigrants to replace white people. That is the subtext of the shutdown: making America white again.
With the threat of a government shutdown looming, the farthest right Members of the far right House Republican conference are competing over who can be the most extreme on immigration. To justify their no compromises approach, just this week, House Republicans are in overdrive advancing ugly anti-semitic tropes and white nationalist conspiracies and falsehoods. They are doing this despite the dangers and consequences to the country – both the dangers of a potential government shutdown and the danger of mainstreaming lies and ideas that are linked to deadly, real world violence.
Advancing White Nationalist Conspiracies and Anti-Semitic Tropes
The great replacement conspiracy theory is a white nationalist and antisemitic belief that has inspired multiple deadly domestic terrorist attacks, but it has become commonplace inside the GOP and right-wing media. Descriptions of an intentional plot of “elites” or Democrats to facilitate an “invasion” to replace the voting power of whites, is as absurd as it is dangerous, but it is increasingly dominant and unchecked in discussions on the right about immigration and the border.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Jewish immigrant from Cuba, is often tagged in the discussion employing this racist and antisemitic conspiracy as intentionally and personally facilitating non-white migration into the United States. Take a recent Breitbart article that wrote: “The northward trail through Panama to Mexico is funded and overseen by Mayorkas, usually via United Nations organizations.”
The dangerous normalization of this thinly veiled antisemitic conspiratorial thinking about the border fits into the larger, disturbing pattern of the historic rise antisemitic incidents that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has documented. This is occurring at the same time as the recent antisemitic tropes peddled by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, which feeds into this dangerous amplification of antisemitism.
The increasing ubiquity of the great replacement conspiracy theory rhetoric is a deeply concerning and urgent matter. The leading GOP presidential campaigns have made the “invasion” conspiracy a centerpiece of their campaigns with the PACs aligned with Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis both having run ads employing the racist fiction. It was given a platform at the first debate and is regularly given space on Fox News and other outlets in the right-media environment. Research compiled by Media Matters found that since the deadly attack in Buffalo, New York in May 2022, there have been over 170 instances of migrants falsely being described as an “invasion” or “invaders” within the Fox News media ecosystem.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL), and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), all used the Congressional dais during the hearings last week to amplify “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies. The House Majority also invited three witnesses who are aligned with Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate groups for the hearings last week.
- At least 34 members of the 118th Congress have amplified the white nationalist “invasion” conspiracy theory over 90 times in their official capacity in the first seven months of their term.
- The 118th Congress introduced seven pieces of legislation that employ the “invasion” conspiracy theory that 47 different members have co-sponsored at least one of these pieces of legislation. On June 22, 2023, by a vote of 219 – 208, the House voted to refer H.Res.503, the Biden impeachment resolution sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert, to the Committees even as it relied on the “invasion” conspiracy theory. All Republicans present voted yes, while all Democrats present voted no.
- The Republican House Majority has also invited at least 18 witnesses who had previously promoted the racist fiction to testify before Congress.
Amplification of this deadly antisemitic and white nationalist conspiracy has also with increasing frequency, become part of Republicans’ social media messaging. America’s Voice has identified hundreds of tweets from elected Republicans this year that employ the “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies. In a telling example of the omnipresence of the problem, just this past Monday, September 18, at least four Members of Congress posted messages that employed the bigoted conspiracy.
Secretary Mayorkas has also confirmed that this very use of “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies by elected leaders fuels the threats facing the nation. In July 2023, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed in testimony before Congress that when Members of Congress use great replacement conspiracy theory language like describing migrants as an “invasion,” it “fuels the threat landscape we encounter.” Tasked with combating threats to the homeland, Members of Congress who employ “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies are actively making the Secretary’s job harder and increasing the threat to public safety.
Dr. Heidi Beirich, Co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, draws a direct connection between the rhetoric and the violence. “When migrants are described as invaders, that leads to violence,” she said, “Because how else does one stop an invasion?”
It is also worth remembering that dog-whistles for the great replacement conspiracy theory still advance the racist fiction. Politicians and pundits don’t often use the most explicitly antisemitic and racist versions of the great replacement conspiracy theory but use coded language to arrive at the same destination. As an excellent resource from Human Rights First explains: “Dog whistles for this conspiracy include ‘voter replacement’ or statements claiming increases in border crossings are ‘intentional.’”
The FBI and the Justice Department have also testified that the threat from violent domestic extremists is a leading terrorist concern. In November 2022 and December 2022, DHS issued memos warning about threats to migrants and infrastructure at the southern border in response to anti-immigrant-related concerns.
As MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan recently put it, “I don’t care how much Republicans try and normalize it, I’m not going let anyone forget that the ‘invasion’ rhetoric in relation to immigration originally came from the far right and from neo-Nazis, and was used by the El Paso shooter to ‘justify’ his mass murder of Latinos.”
Complaining that Cruel, Unworkable and Extreme HR2 Legislation Doesn’t Go Far Enough
On Tuesday, September 19, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) all took to X to cite the white nationalist “invasion” conspiracy theory as their reasoning they are driving towards a Government shutdown. This is despite the fact that the extreme, cruel, and unworkable, H.R.2 was attached to the Continuing Resolution. A piece of anti-immigrant legislation that members repeatedly promoted using the same deadly “invasion” conspiracy theory. America’s Voice found at least 12 examples of Republican Members of Congress employing the rhetoric while promoting the original passage of H.R.2.
Check out America’s Voice Debunking White Nationalist Narratives About Immigration and the Border – A Short Resource Guide for more.
