“Trump’s immigration actions and rhetoric comes with a demonstrated body count”
Ahead of Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to the border in Alamo, Texas on Tuesday, the following is a statement from Mario Carrillo, the Texas-based Campaign Manager for America’s Voice:
It’s a dark and fitting end to the Trump presidency that Trump will visit the failed monument that fueled his political emergence – a wall built on overt racism, dangerous lies and incendiary rhetoric that portrays immigrants as invaders and threats.
From the moment Trump descended that escalator in 2015 to call Mexican immigrants like me and my family ‘rapists’ and ‘criminals,’ his embrace of nativist rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies has been relentless. It is also an inextricable part of his failed legacy. It led to the moral stain and permanent trauma of family separation. Hundreds of Trump executive measures, big and small, have inflicted pain, imperiled lives, eliminated legal immigration avenues and sullied America’s reputation.
Trump’s immigration actions and rhetoric comes with a demonstrated body count. Just as Trump’s rhetoric and lies about the election incited an insurrection and led to the deaths in the U.S. Capitol, his rhetoric and lies also incited a white supremacist to kill 23 people in my hometown of El Paso, among many other violent acts by Trump’s supporters. When the deaths of those in custody and those exposed to COVID are added, the body count associated with his immigration failures is stunning.
And let us not forget that as President Trump crosses the vast expanse of the nation en route to Texas, he will be looking down on over 375,000 lives lost due to his raging incompetence on the COVID pandemic.
So what Trump views as a celebratory address at the border wall should be viewed for what it really is: another reminder of the horrors of this presidency and a perfect encapsulation of Trump’s time in office: narcissistic; unpopular, corrupt; racist; and the furthering of his desire to weaponize white grievance to gratify his ego.
I would be remiss in not singling out Texas’ own Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. They have willfully aided and abetted Trump’s lawless presidency and his war on immigrants. In doing so, they helped fuel the extremism that had led to incalculable damage measured in lost lives and a damaged democracy. They should be ashamed. Cruz should resign immediately for his role in perpetrating the big lie that led to a deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Given their role in the worst presidency in American history, both Texas Senators are unfit for public office.
Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States and must be removed from office. His record and rhetoric on immigration – and his willingness to indulge and amplify the most extreme elements of his radical and violent base – is a major reason history will judge him as an affront to America and what we stand for.
