Washington, DC — This week, the relentless focus of Donald Trump and Republican allies to advance dangerous immigration-related lies, conspiracies, and falsehoods has been on display – both by Republican design and in key coverage and commentary pushing back and putting into the proper larger context. As America’s Voice has highlighted, the right-wing focus on immigration lies and conspiracies is part of a larger strategy that lays the groundwork for delegitimizing the democratic process and justifying political violence. This was on display starkly yesterday as the Speaker of the House took to the Capitol steps – once the site of an anti-democratic riot inspired by Republican lies – to call for policies to curtail voting using the non-existent boogeyman of non-citizens voting as the excuse.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director at America’s Voice:
“Lies about non-citizen voting and elevating the white nationalist and antisemitic replacement conspiracy set the groundwork for delegitimizing our election outcomes, creating divisions, and encouraging political violence. It is irresponsible for Speaker Johnson to stand with key architects of Trump’s insurrection to try to claim the high ground on defending democracy.”
See below for several fresh examples highlighting the Republican focus on immigration lies and conspiracies – and the implications and larger real-world dangers:
HuffPost article by Arthur Delaney, “Republicans Lie About Election Fraud On Capitol Steps Where Mob Raged On Jan. 6” notes:
“House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held a press conference Wednesday outside the Capitol to denounce the phantom threat of election fraud … Johnson spoke from the base of the east steps to the House of Representatives, one of several parts of the Capitol stormed by Trump’s mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Newly released security camera footage from that day shows Trump supporters mounting the steps, then confronting and attacking police officers guarding the House. In one clip, at the top of the House steps, one of the rioters brandished a sign that said ‘end the FRAUD.’”
… On Wednesday, at the bottom of the steps, flanked by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), former Trump administration official Stephen Miller and others, Johnson endorsed new legislation that would require proof of citizenship for people to register to vote … Asked for evidence that undocumented immigrants vote heavily in federal elections, Johnson said it was just something everyone knows, while admitting nobody can prove it. ‘We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections, but it’s not been something that is easily provable,’ Johnson said. ‘We don’t have that number.’”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA): “Replacement theory is real.” CNN reports that Rep. Perry stated:
“‘Replacement theory is real … They added white to it to stop everybody from talking about it.’ While Perry said he is happy to accept people ‘that are here legally,’ pointing to his ancestors who migrated to the US, he has an issue with migrants that are ‘un-American.’ ‘What is happening now is we’re importing people into the country that want to be in America … but have no interest in being Americans, and that’s very different and to disparage the comments is to chill the conversation so that we can continue to bring in more people that we never met that are un-American.’”
New York Times, “How Republicans Echo Antisemitic Tropes Despite Declaring Support for Israel” noting:
“For all of their rhetoric of the moment, increasingly through the Trump era many Republicans have helped inject into the mainstream thinly veiled anti-Jewish messages with deep historical roots.
The conspiracy theory taking on fresh currency is one that dates back hundreds of years and has perennially bubbled into view: that a shady cabal of wealthy Jews secretly controls events and institutions contrary to the national interest of whatever country it is operating in.”
America’s Voice Senior Research Director Zachary Mueller op-ed, jointly running in Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle: “Roger Marshall’s migrant ‘invasion’ rhetoric: straight out of domestic terrorist mouths:”
“May 14 marks two years to the day when a white nationalist drove to a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, where he murdered 10 Black people. The shooter left behind a racist screed that repeatedly cited the alleged ‘invasion’ by immigrants and the larger ‘great replacement theory’ as his motivation. This bigoted and antisemitic replacement conspiracy theory, originally popular among the white nationalist movement, claims there is an intentional plot by liberal elites to facilitate an invasion of nonwhite people to replace the white population in Western countries … Unfortunately, while these conspiracies used to be limited to the white nationalist fringes of the internet, they have spread and been mainstreamed in recent years by numerous elected officials, including Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall.”
For More Reading
- Vanessa Cárdenas Univision op-ed: “How Trump’s relentless anti-immigrant focus is tied to his threats to democracy”
- America’s Voice March 2024 analysis and press release: “Beyond “Blood Bath”: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Venom is the Tip of the Anti-Democratic Spear”
