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Read Jazmine Ulloa’s “Talk of an Immigrant ‘Invasion’ Grows in Republican Ads and Speech”  and see accompanying NYTimes video HERE

Link: https://bitly.cx/ZMR

Washington, DC — A New York Times story this weekend, “Talk of an Immigrant ‘Invasion’ Grows in Republican Ads and Speech,” spotlights America’s Voice research documenting the rising use and dangerous consequences of Republicans’ adoption and mainstreaming of anti-immigrant conspiracies. The Times story, by Jazmine Ulloa, includes the subhead, “Once relegated to the margins of the national debate, the word is now part of the party’s mainstream message on immigration” – a trend that America’s Voice has been documenting in our ongoing ad tracking and messaging analysis (reach out to press@americasvoice.org for more information or to set up conversations with our research team).

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Americans need to understand the full extent of radical forces attempting to stir hate and fear among us, no matter the consequences, all for the sake of political gain. America’s Voice documents the facts and dangerous political manipulation, including false and dangerous political ads that can and have led to violence. Our ongoing ad tracking and analysis demonstrates the extent to which political actors are relentlessly asserting that America is facing an “invasion” – a dangerous lie, originally found on the margins of the white nationalist and anti-immigrant movements, that has now spread to the highest levels of political discourse. Along with the related ‘replacement’ theory, this type of rhetoric has deadly real-life consequences as we have seen in Charlottesville, El Paso, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo.”

Below, find key excerpts from the New York Times story: “Talk of an Immigrant ‘Invasion’ Grows in Republican Ads and Speech”:

“It was not so long ago that the term invasion had been mostly relegated to the margins of the national immigration debate. Many candidates and political figures tended to avoid the word, which echoed demagoguery in previous centuries targeting Asian, Latino and European immigrants. Few mainstream Republicans dared use it.

But now, the word has become a staple of Republican immigration rhetoric. Use of the term in television campaign ads in the current election cycle has already eclipsed the total from the previous one, data show, and the word appears in speeches, TV interviews and even in legislation proposed in Congress. The resurgence of the term exemplifies the shift in Republican rhetoric in the era of former President Donald J. Trump and his right-wing supporters.

…Democrats and advocates for migrants denounce the word and its recent turn from being taboo. Historians and analysts who study political rhetoric have long warned that the term dehumanizes those to whom it refers and could stoke violence, noting that it appeared in writings by perpetrators of deadly mass shootings in Pittsburgh, Pa.; El Paso, Texas; and Buffalo, N.Y., in recent years.

…America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group, has tracked the word’s rise in Congress. The group has collected at least 20 examples of Republicans using it in floor speeches this legislative session, up from seven during the last session and none before that. The term appears in four pieces of legislation this year, compared with seven last year and three in 2022.

…Immigrant-rights groups argue the language has not helped curb border crossings — which started rising under Mr. Trump and slowed early on in the pandemic before increasing again — or aided Republicans in elections. Predictions of a red wave in 2022 fizzled despite Republican fear-mongering about migrants, said Zachary Mueller, senior research director at America’s Voice. ‘Yes, it works to mobilize their base,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think the vast majority of people are going to sign up for that level of vitriol.’”

• Check out the America’s Voice weekly Substack, “Combating Nativist Narratives,” for the latest tracking data and analysis of the ads and messaging around immigration and the border. Some quick stats from last week’s edition:
• For the week of April 22 there were 148 Republican ads running with immigration-related attacks on TV and CTV for a total spend of $7,863,878 (AdImpact)
• There were 31 new unique Republican-aligned immigration-related Facebook ads that started last week.
• Read America’s Voice press release from April 2024: “Even Anti-Immigrant Organizations Are More Wary About Using Deadly “Invasion” Rhetoric Than GOP”

  conspiracy, gop, immigrants, invasion