Washington, DC – On Capitol Hill and the campaign trail, the relentless Republican focus on immigration and the border is not about solutions. It’s about politics, As another round of House Republican anti-immigrant committee hearings kicks off this week, the following is relevant context – no matter the nominal topic of focus (which this week is on fentanyl and crime).
Below are consistent points of emphasis about each of these Republican anti-immigrant hearings, followed by specific resources on this week’s committee hearing topics.
- Republicans are relying on dangerous fear-mongering and lies. Republican assertions rest on using ugly and dangerous lies whether slandering immigrants as threats, criminals and drug traffickers; advancing misinformation about “open borders;” or mainstreaming white nationalist conspiracies about “invasion” and “replacement” that have been linked to deadly incidents of real world violence.
- Republicans are advancing a pre-baked political agenda independent from the facts. Whether it’s their continued chatter over a sham impeachment of President Biden and cabinet officials based on immigration falsehoods, policy differences or their refusal to admit that their apocalyptic predictions about the end of Title 42 got it exactly backwards, Republicans are merely continuing a political attack that GOP and right wing leaders started even before Biden was in office, when they blamed Biden’s immigration policies for a rise in border encounters occurring during the Trump presidency.
- Republicans are driven by politics over solutions on immigration. None of the Republican approaches would advance real solutions or move us closer to the full-scale overhaul and modernize our immigration system needs – or even greater management or control of the southern border – but the GOP keeps blocking anything like solutions. All of it is designed to keep a sense of crisis involving non-white immigrants in the headlines. It’s all politics and keeping the GOP base animated and inflamed.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Instead of real solutions on immigration or other important issues facing the American people, House Republicans are again using their majority to seek to amplify dangerous nativist disinformation and scapegoat and fearmonger over immigrants. This week, they aren’t acting in good faith to address the fentanyl crisis or focus on real threats to public safety. Instead, it’s all politics, disinformation and strategic racism to falsely blame non-white migrants for the nation’s problems.”
Here are the five facts to keep in mind ahead of hearings this week on fentanyl and crime:
- Fentanyl is a serious issue that Republicans are politicizing with their nativist disinformation and scapegoating of immigrants. There is an urgent need to address the nation’s fentanyl crisis but falsely conflating the issue as an immigration one distracts from the solutions. In reality, 90% of fentanyl is seized at the ports of entry Alongside commercial traffic with U.S citizens comprising 85% of those arrested for the smuggling.
- Republicans’ rhetoric is a real threat to public safety. America’s Voice has identified over 81 times members of 118th Congress in their official capacity have echoed the same racist “invasion” conspiracy theory as several deadly domestic terrorists. DHS has repeatedly warned that the greatest terror threat facing the Homeland comes from the domestic terrorist radicalized by the same ideas now being espoused by Republican Members of Congress. Instead of addressing this serious threat to public safety they would rather perpetuate the widely debunked and pernicious myth that immigrants are correlated with crime.
- Those who perpetuate the “open borders“ myth are only benefiting the cartels and putting vulnerable people at risk. No matter how many times Republicans repeat a lie, it doesn’t make it true. CBP officials and the administration have repeatedly made clear the border is not open. The millions spent disseminating this lie advances disinformation and is a gift to the cartels who can use it to convince desperate people to make a harrowing journey north driving chaos and confusion at the border.
- No, immigrants aren’t a threat, they’re essential for our economy. Look at the data and listen to the expert consensus, immigration is critical to a thriving U.S. economy, from essential work to job creation to the tax base. Republicans, however, are trying to perpetuate the tired and debunked myths that new immigrants are a threat to the lives and livelihoods of native born working families, all while their own rhetoric is creating a climate that threatens public safety.
- Listen closely. What you won’t hear from Republicans are real solutions because they think chaos at the border helps them get elected. Republicans are not interested in addressing the challenges of immigration and the border. Their proposals are extreme, cruel, and unworkable. With mounting evidence to the contrary, Republicans believe that demagoguing migrants and exploiting chaos is good for them politically.
