Washington, DC — Today, House Republicans are expected to again vote on the sham impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Whether or not the House GOP vote counting operation is more effective than last week’s debacle, the effort to remove Secretary Mayorkas from office will undoubtedly fail in the Senate. Yet, the larger implications of the Mayorkas impeachment are best observed far from Capitol Hill.
Recent real-world violence – both averted and real – underscores the dangers being mainstreamed by politicians stoking fear and conspiracies, including the “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracy theories at the heart of the Mayorkas impeachment push. As a reminder, America’s Voice’s ongoing tracking has found 430 tweets just this year from GOP elected officials who have elevated the white nationalist and antisemitic “replacement” and “invasion” conspiracy, including regarding Secretary Mayorkas. In floor debate, committee hearings and public comments, Republican lawmakers and candidates have pumped these conspiracies into the dialogue surrounding immigration. Meanwhile, we continue to have reminders about the dangers of such rhetoric:
- Last week, the FBI arrested a man, “galvanized by anti-immigrant rhetoric about an ‘invasion,’” who had “plotted to launch an attack on migrants and federal law enforcement at the southern border using explosives and sniper rifles,” as Tess Owen of Vice reported.
- Earlier this month, law enforcement arrested a Pennsylvania man after he apparently beheaded his father. The accused killer was “steeped in far-right conspiracy theories,” including, “saying there was an ‘invasion’ of immigrants across the border,” according to USA Today extremism reporter Will Carless.
In an opinion essay in TIME published last week, former Anti-Defamation League (ADL) leader Abraham Foxman highlights the dangerous conspiracies central to House Republicans’ drive to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In “The Conspiracy Theories Behind the Drive to Impeach Mayorkas,” Foxman writes:
“The immigration debate has historically been laced with racist and antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories. These poisonous ideas are center stage in the drive to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Impeachment proponents in Congress accuse Mayorkas of deliberately inviting an immigrant invasion. This draws directly from the “Great Replacement” theory, which explains demographic change as a plot against white people, often instigated by Jews to undermine white dominance and usurp power.
…You don’t have to be a Holocaust survivor like me to be concerned. Before he opened fire killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, shouting ‘All Jews must die’ the shooter had just posted: ‘HIAS (a Jewish refugee resettlement organization) likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.’ … When an antisemitic, anti-immigrant conspiracy is evoked to take down a Jewish public servant, who served on the board of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the same organization that helped bring my own family to the U.S. after the Holocaust, the same organization evoked by the perpetrator of the largest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, my antennae go up … It’s time to stop this dangerous charade.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“While the bogus impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas will soon fizzle and fail – either again in the House or the Senate – the mainstreaming of white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracies will continue to have dangerous real-world impact. We can disagree about the politics and policy of immigration and the border, but we must draw the line when the rhetoric is inspiring hateful violence. The majority in the House must do better and refrain from advancing dangerous conspiracies in their efforts to advance their political agenda. ”
Additional Resources (among many other Editorials, Op-Eds and Statements)
- Abraham Foxman Op-Ed in TIME: “The Conspiracy Theories Behind the Drive to Impeach Mayorkas”
- Jerry Nadler: “The @HouseGOP attempt to impeach @SecMayorkas isn’t just driven by policy disagreements. Instead, it’s yet another example of how the GOP has been overrun by poisonous conspiracy theories like ‘the great replacement’ that fuel extremist violence and undermine our democracy.”
- Dan Goldman: “The racist Great Replacement Theory is central to the GOP’s sham impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas. By stoking fears around an ‘invasion’ at our border, the GOP is manufacturing panic and promoting xenophobic conspiracy theories to foment their MAGA base.”
- Advocacy organizations’ press release, “Dangerous Bigoted Conspiracy Theories Should Not Dictate Impeachment Proceedings”
America’s Voice press release with audio link to press call: “Reps. Castro, Raskin, Escobar and Casar Join Extremism Experts to Discuss Right-Wing Border Vigilantism Threats“
