19 OCT 2023

Radical GOP Rhetoric on Immigration Stokes Hatred, Promotes Islamophobia, and Fuels Violence

WASHINGTON – Extremist GOP rhetoric is once again on the rise as the party recycles a time-old tactic: whipping up fears over national security by vilifying immigrants as terrorists. As war between Israel and Hamas escalates, Republican politicians and presidential candidates have ratcheted up rhetoric that invokes Islamophobic stereotypes. The fear mongering reaches millions of people through right-wing media outlets and may fuel violence against innocent people. A 6-year-old Palestinian child in Illinois was recently murdered by an individual who was radicalized by right-wing media.

“In 2022, the GOP and right-wing groups spent over $171 million in anti-immigrant TV ads, often evoking the Great Replacement Theory and using white nationalist language,” stated Beatriz Lopez, Deputy Director of the Immigration Hub. “Today, they continue to stoke fear and violence with little to no regard for the impact as they, once again, bet on demonizing immigrants to win votes. This shameless tactic shouldn’t define how we approach America’s immigration system. The majority of Americans support order and humane solutions - not chaos and cruelty.”

  • Just over the last week, from October 10 to 17, the Immigration Hub found over 1,300 negative mentions of immigration across right-wing media outlets. The rhetoric reached an audience of nearly 6 million people, translating to an estimated $141,519,854 in publicity value.

    • Fox News ran a headline stating that officials in New York were planning for a “global day of Jihad,” despite there being “no specific, credible threats.”

    • A headline from Newsmax, quoting Senator Markwayne Mullin, said that a “lax border leaves [the] U.S. susceptible” to terrorism.

    • The Daily Caller quoted U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany as saying he had “zero confidence” that the Biden administration would vet potential refugees from Gaza.

  • Senator Ted Cruz warned that, as a result of the conflict, the U.S. was at the highest risk of a “serious terrorist attack” since the September 11th attacks. He baselessly cited “the Biden administration’s open border policies” as a key reason for the heightened risk.

  • GOP presidential candidates joined in, promoting hardline immigration policies to sound tough.

    • Former President Donald Trump vowed to bar U.S. entry to potential refugees from Gaza in a commitment to revive and expand his infamous travel ban – which President Biden reversed in 2021. “We aren't bringing in anyone from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security," he said. He recently accused undocumented immigrants of being involved in the attacks on Israel, likened them to reptiles, and suggested they were “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. – a white supremacist conspiracy.

    • Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called immigration a national “weakness” being monitored by foreign enemies. He also argued against accepting refugees from Gaza, suggesting that doing so would “increase anti-Americanism” in the U.S. He went on to describe Palestinians as being anti-semitic and having a “toxic culture.”

    • Nikki Haley initially stated that America had "always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists," Haley then quickly fell in line with the other GOP candidates after receiving backlash stating: “I’ve always said we shouldn't take any Gazan refugees into the U.S. I said it when I was at the [United Nations] that we shouldn't take Syrian refugees into the U.S.”

    • Senator Tim Scott agreed that refugees from Gaza should be collectively barred from entering the U.S., saying, "I don't think that they're all antisemitic. I just can't tell you who's who.”

    • Vivek Ramaswamy took a similar stance, stating that he would not allow refugees from Gaza into the U.S.

Research shows no history of terrorism committed by undocumented immigrants: The Cato Institute researched all terrorist events in the U.S. from 1975 to 2022, concluding that the chance of a person perishing in a terrorist attack committed by a foreigner on U.S. soil over the 48-year period studied was 1 in 4.3 million per year. During the same period, the number of people murdered or injured in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil committed by a foreign-born terrorist who entered illegally was zero.

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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.