March 2022 Right Wing Media Report

During the March 1-31 tracking period, there were more than 2,000 negative immigration mentions across right-wing media outlets to an estimated audience of over 59 million people and over 176,000 Twitter mentions. Immigration media mentions have continued to plateau in March compared to previous months. There were two minor spikes in media mentions in the middle of the month and one significant peak towards the end of March.

• The first peak in media mentions was on March 16th, following reports from the Washington Examiner and others about the release of February CBP data. CBP reported 164,973 Southern border encounters, which Republicans used to highlight a “61% increase over February 2021” on Twitter.
• The next spike in mentions developed around March 24-25 because of Biden’s new asylum rule change, which would allow some migrants seeking asylum to have their claims evaluated by asylum officers instead of immigration judges to expedite the process. Fox News, and Breitbart, among other right-wing outlets, reported on this change in the asylum procedure. Republicans used this new rule to claim on Twitter that it would “exacerbate the current border crisis.”
• The most significant spike occurred between March 30-31, stemming from concerns about Biden’s plan to end Title 42. The GOP used Twitter to widely circulate a Fox News article, propelling the “Biden border crisis” and “cartels and smugglers” narratives even further.

• The top Facebook post is a Breitbart article that critiques Biden’s State of the Union address, specifically because Biden “didn’t mention specific policies to secure the border.” This post garnered 89,000 emoticons and over 14,000 shares. Other tops posts came from Tucker Carlson, claiming that “another border surge is coming” and that we need to “end the invasion” by sending US troops to the southern border.