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Immigration Memo: Key Questions at RNC Convention 

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Contact press@americasvoice.org to discuss or book Vanessa Cárdenas or other spokespeople in English or Spanish; Access online version of memo HERE.

Washington, DC — As the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee –  and given Republicans relentless anti-immigration focus, including the first two points in their official 2024 platform – see below for America’s Voice’s analysis of key points of emphasis and context along with key related questions. 

Three Key Immigration Points of Emphasis

(explored in more detail below):

  • Point 1: Trump and Republicans’ unsparing mass deportation plan is their most consequential and damaging immigration and economic policy proposal and would do severe harm to American communities and families
  • Point 2: Republicans’ immigration focus is central to their larger anti-democratic threats and election denialism and stokes the type of political violence on which the nation is now focused
  • Point 3: Stark contrasts are in sharp relief between Biden and Trump on immigration – especially when it comes to separating immigrant families

Three Key Immigration Questions

  • Question 1: Will Trump and RNC speakers continue to use dangerous immigration rhetoric? As the nation reckons with the topic of political violence, will Trump or other RNC speakers amplify dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric about ‘poisoning the blood’ and continue invoking dangerous “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies about immigrants on the debate stage? 
  • Question 2: Will Trump and RNC speakers highlight the scope and details on mass deportation? Will Trump and allies reiterate that Dreamers and other long-settled residents, including spouses of U.S. citizens, would be targets of his proposed “largest deportation’ in U.S. history?”  
  • Question 3: Will Trump and RNC speakers use the debate stage to push lies about the election to undermine American democracy, including lies about non-citizen voting?

Key Immigration Points of Emphasis

Point 1: Trump and Republicans’ unsparing mass deportation plan is their most consequential and damaging immigration and economic policy proposal and would do severe harm to American communities and families

  • As America’s Voice describes in this detailed memo, Donald Trump and allies are reiterating their pledge of unsparing mass deportations in a Trump second term, which we think is the single most consequential immigration policy topic as well as a self-defeating economic policy idea. It would include deploying red state National Guard troops in blue state cities and communities throughout America and promised mass detention camps run by the military. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that is a deeply unpopular plan.
  • As the AV memo underscores, the proposed mass roundups and removals are not just talking points – there are real proposals backed by plans to put Trump’s vision into practice (also read the Niskanen Center’s assessment of Project 2025 and immigration). 
  • Notably, the Trump team is making clear that their pledged “LARGEST DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY” would be unsparing, with targets including Dreamers and other long-settled immigrants, such as the spouses of U.S. citizens with more than 10 years in the U.S. – the group President Biden’s recent policy announcement addressed.
    • In a Fox interview, Trump noted: “I’m gonna do the big deportation. The biggest ever … you’ll get rid of 10 really bad ones. And one really beautiful mother … it’s always gonna be tough.”
    • Former ICE Director Tom Homan stated, “People need to be deported…No one should be off the table” and recently noted, “Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen … They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.”
  • The economic toll of implementing this plan would be vast, with millions of native-born Americans losing their jobs and livelihoods; entire American industries gutted with untold ripple effects; all while millions of immigrant homeowners, entrepreneurs, essential workers, healthcare providers, and teachers would be uprooted from U.S. communities, along with an untold number of their family members and people assumed incorrectly to be undocumented but deported anyway. Read a deep-dive on the potential economic damage in this Washington Monthly column, “Trump’s Plans for Mass Deportation Would Be an Economic Disaster,” by Robert Shapiro, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. 

Point 2: Republicans’ immigration focus is central to their larger anti-democratic threats and election denialism and stokes the type of political violence on which the nation is now focused 

  • Advancing dangerous xenophobic conspiracies and lurid lies about immigrants is both the beating heart of Trump-ism and a central plank in his larger anti-democratic push to pre-invalidate the 2024 results unless they go his way.  Watch a recent press briefing with America’s Voice, the Brennan Center for Justice, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, UnidosUS, and Declaration for American Democracy on non-citizen voting lie and read this Univision op-ed from Vanessa Cárdenas, “How Trump’s relentless anti-immigrant focus is tied to his threats to democracy”
  • For example, Trump and allies’ repetition of the ‘replacement’ theory lie that non-citizens are voting, or that putting new voters on the 2024 rolls is the intention of Biden’s recent announcement to protect spouses of U.S. citizens, are inextricable from his efforts to delegitimize the elections and lay the foundation for another Jan. 6 assault if they do not win in November. 
  • Specifically, as we detail in this America’s Voice analysis, there are three major and related threats from the Trump campaign’s immigration focus:
    • Downstream political violence that results from amplifying white nationalist conspiracies like the invasion and great replacement conspiracies
    • The threat of unrelenting and indiscriminate mass deportation, which would devastate the economy, and
    • Casting immigrants as villains determined to influence our elections as a strategy to erode confidence in American democracy among base Republican voters.
  • As the nation focuses on political violence in the aftermath of the shooting in Butler, PA, we urge elected officials, candidates, media outlets, and others with major platforms to recognize and act on their responsibility in tamping down – rather than ratcheting up – the risk of political violence (see the related America’s Voice reaction here)

Point 3: Stark contrasts are in sharp relief between Biden and Trump on immigration – especially when it comes to separating immigrant families

  • Following Republican legislative obstruction of broader legislative reform and even a border and asylum bill heavily tilted toward GOP policy priorities, President Biden has taken executive actions that aim to pair an orderly border – including restrictive measures we don’t fully support – with protections and opportunities for long-settled immigrants and American families. 
  • President Biden’s newest actions aim to ensure that American families can stay together, including an estimated 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens, and that more Dreamer college graduates have an opportunity to put their degrees to work to build up this country. 
  • This is combined with the tens of thousands of would-be migrants at the border between ports of entry who have been given alternatives to irregular migration through the CBP One App, the CHNV Program, United for Ukraine, the Afghan program and the Welcome Corps.
  • This approach of order and legalization connects with the vast majority of the American public’s immigration sentiments. 
    • Frustrated with the broken immigration status quo, Americans want action on immigration and are concerned about maintaining an orderly border.  Yet, the strong majority of the public supports a balanced immigration approach that pairs efforts to ensure an orderly border with legal protections and opportunities for long-settled immigrants, instead of enforcement-only alternatives (let alone Trump’s proposal of mass deportation of Dreamers and others with deep roots in the U.S.) See a deep dive analysis on Americans’ immigration views here and an Equis poll of Latino voters’ immigration views here.

Key Resources