Some politicians try to present their rhetoric on immigration as a concern for national security. But in reality, they are promoting an aged, racist theory that has already led to several massacres in the United States, an alliance of eight anti-hate groups reports.
They argue that a number of public statements and some legislative and state actions are based on “great exchange” theory — the belief that mysterious, often Jewish, actors are organizing mass immigration of people of color to break the dominance of whites in American society. This theory has been linked to racist massacres in Pass, Buffalo AND Pittsburgh in which Latinos, blacks, and Jews were targeted respectively.
The anti-hate groups include the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Western States Center and the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. Their report, released earlier this month, documents “A disturbing trend among factions of the 118th Congress: the normalization and amplification of xenophobic “great replacement” and “invasion” conspiracy theories.
To spread the notion that immigrants are “invading” the United States as part of some nefarious conspiracy is to promote a lie.
U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra defined “’invasion’ as a hostile and organized military force too powerful to be dealt with by ordinary judicial procedures.” Even when the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border peaked, there was never any evidence that they were part of any military force.
There is also the fact that claims that immigration is a conspiracy to subjugate white power come from the most evidence-free districts world of conspiracy theories.
It is also worth noting that despite the fact that former President Donald Trump constantly blows up stories about crimes committed by undocumented people, this group is committing crimes in much lower rates than those born in a given country.
According to hate speech researchers, claims of an invasion or the great replacement dehumanize immigrants and people of color and make them targets of violent extremists.
Even though these theories are wrong and toxic, many people in this Congress have made statements alluding to these theories.
“By the time of publication, the 118th Congress had held more than 30 congressional hearings espousing bigoted conspiracy theories about cultural exchange or invasion, and dozens of…immigration radicals, far-right figures, and members of SPLC-designated anti-immigration hate groups had been subpoenaed to testify,” the report says. “A total of 1,411 unique social media posts from official congressional accounts promoting the same bigoted conspiracy theories had appeared.”
The report quoted statements from dozens of lawmakers, including several from Ohio.
For example, U.S. Representative Warren Davidson of Troy on June 27, 2023. published on X“America welcomes about 1 million new citizens each year. Organized invasion and occupation are not the same thing. Border security is national security, and Congress must restore our sovereign southern border through impeachment/impeachment.”
“Impeachment” referred to an attempt to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from power. The attempt failed, but Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, nearly accused him of conspiring to destroy the United States.
She said Mayorcas “has caused great harm to our cities and families, the kind of harm you would expect from a hostile foreign adversary who wants to destabilize America,” the report said. “Criminal illegal immigrants are murdering, raping and beating people in broad daylight. This is death and destruction to our country and people, not just a difference in policy.”
Never one to be outdone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, took to the impeachment debate and accused the Homeland Security secretary of actively working to bring the country down.
“Mayorcas is guilty of aiding and abetting the total invasion of our country by gang members, murderers, rapists and thousands of immigrants,” she said.
The report also said conspiracy theories about an invasion and a great replacement contributed to the legislation.
For example, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, “introduced HR 552: the ‘No Tax Dollars for the United Nations’ Immigration Invasion Act,’ which would prohibit the federal government from making payments to the U.N. migrant and refugee agency. The United States has provided bipartisan support to the U.N. refugee agency for more than 70 years,” the report said.
He adds that “coded versions of proxy-style ideas” manifest at the state level.
Despite Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, voter fraud of any kind is incredibly uncommon. So uncommon that, as a percentage, it’s usually several it begins 0.000…”
Stirring up unfounded fears of fraud to justify measures that reduce minority voting is nothing fresh. But the New York Times reported in 2022, fresh trend — Republican Party officials said illegal immigrants voted in significant numbers.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has taken a series of potentially punitive actions allegedly intended to prevent illegal immigrants from voting.
He mentioned last week 597 cases possible registration of noncitizens for law enforcement purposes, but LaRose’s batting average in this area is not good. A Capital Journal investigation last year found that of the 521 cases of noncitizen voting reported to law enforcement by that point in LaRose’s term, only one ended with charges being broughtLaRose has been in office since early 2019, and the number of votes cast in the state since then has well over 10 million.
Yet LaRose continues to purge voters, as opponents say disproportionately targeted at voters of colorand his office illegally removed citizens from the electoral registers.
And yet he was I returned to X last week, again acting like foreign voting is a sedate problem in Ohio.
“It is my sworn duty to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in Ohio elections,” LeRose said. “After conducting the most extensive citizenship verification audit ever conducted, our Public Integrity Division has formally forwarded non-U.S. voter registration records to the Ohio Attorney General for potential prosecution.”
