Washington, DC —Today in Michigan, Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at a Grand Rapids rally and, per Politico, “discuss ‘Biden’s Border Bloodbath.’ … and highlight a recent tragedy there.”
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, followed by several key points to keep in mind:
“The rally location may change, but Donald Trump’s overriding focus on stoking fears and falsehoods about immigrants remains consistent. Of course, his goal isn’t to enact real immigration and border solutions – as his role in scuttling the Senate’s hardline border bill makes clear – but rather to exploit tragedies and mainstream immigration lies and conspiracies using violent rhetoric and in his pursuit of political power. It’s an updated version of the right wing’s age-old reliance on strategic racism.
Yet, just because his motivations are transparent doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Trump’s use of violent rhetoric, such as ‘bloodbath,’ and his role in elevating conspiracies such as ‘replacement’ and ‘invasion,’ threaten to again lead to real-world acts of violence. They also lay the groundwork to delegitimize election results and as a pretext for another violent assault on our democracy. All of it is dangerous and at odds with the reality that immigrants strengthen America and our democracy.”
Below are three additional points ahead of Trump’s speech:
- Immigrants and crime – the facts: Any murder is a tragedy and any perpetrator – of any immigration status – must be held accountable for their crime. The way Donald Trump and allies are intent to exploit isolated crimes to advance the narrative that immigrants and asylum seekers are dangerous threats is at odds with the facts. In study after study, and study, and study, and more study, the facts are clear: immigrants have lower crime rates than the rest of the population.
- How Trump’s anti-immigrant focus is tied to his attacks on democracy: As AV has been highlighting, Trump’s focus on lurid crimes; efforts to stoke dehumanizing fears about immigrants; and reliance on rhetoric and ideas such as “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies is related to his larger anti-democratic push. Such notions lay the groundwork for delegitimizing election results, stoke false grievances that “real” Americans’ political power is being unfairly diminished by non-white immigrants, and are a pretext for political violence in the style of January 6th. See more here and here.
- The cruel failures of Trump’s first term and the dangerous vision for a potential Trump second term: Don’t let Trump whitewash his real first-term immigration record – which wasn’t just cruel, but a chaotic failure, including as judged by the metric of ‘border encounters. And he now pledges that a second Trump term would include mass roundups, military camps, the purge of long-settled immigrants, and an array of other policies that would harm not only immigrant families, but all Americans (see a deep-dive from America’s Voice here on Project 2025 and the Trump vision for a second term).
