Supporters of former President Donald Trump took the stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday to portray immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as dangerous gang members, sex traffickers and terrorists who put American families “at great risk.”
“The rise of Joe Biden has also led to a surge in violent crime among illegal immigrants,” said a narrator in a video played at the convention. “Horrifying crimes, murders, gang attacks on police, child sex crimes and the brutal murder of a nursing student on a college campus.”
A few days ago, Trump was almost killed by an American citizen. Thomas Matthew Crooks registered to vote in Pennsylvania, which only citizens can register.
After the assassination attempt, Trump’s campaign message was undeterred, focusing on immigrants as the root cause of violence in the United States. Yet the shooting that wounded Trump’s ear was allegedly carried out by someone who fit the profile of a perpetrator of targeted violence — a young white man who some former classmates described as a bullied loner. .
“Targeted violence is often committed by angry people who don’t have a well-thought-out narrative but are more impulsive and unique,” said Brian Lay, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Colorado State University, San Bernardino. Wen said.
He said most targeted violence is committed by young white men in their teens and early twenties. Studies show that immigrants have lower crime rates than U.S.-born citizens.
Using data collected by the Texas Department of Public Safety between 2012 and 2018, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that undocumented immigrants committed crimes at much lower rates than native-born citizens across multiple felony crimes, including violent crimes, drug crimes and property crimes.
A similar study by Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute found that undocumented immigrants have a 14 percent lower homicide rate than native-born citizens. Texas is the only state that keeps immigration status data on people arrested for certain crimes.
Stanford University professor Ran Abramitzky, who helped lead a nationally representative study comparing incarceration rates for immigrants and U.S.-born citizens from 1870 to 2020, recently told The Times , “As a group, immigrants have been incarcerated at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens” for 150 years.
But Levine said political fear-mongering is inconsistent with the facts, which is why Republicans will continue to blame immigrants for violent crime.
“Anecdotal images, scary images of being different from others are going to be factors in peddling fear,” he said. “Political theater involves building on, or at least amplifying or exaggerating, dissatisfaction, and that’s problematic.”
While the man who shot Trump doesn’t fit the profile of the perpetrators he accuses of being a perpetrator, Saturday’s shooting at a Pennsylvania rally could make it easier for Republicans to sell a broader message to voters about the need for law and order. Narrative. This could ultimately conflate violent extremism by U.S. citizens with violent crime by immigrants.
“I think there’s definitely an attempt to tie the former president’s assassination attempt to this dark, horrific world of American carnage that we live in,” said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. “He’s going to try to paint everything with one broad stroke. ”
Democrats could use that to their advantage, she said, pointing to the fact that border arrests are down, crime rates are down and immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens.
Republican strategist Matt Terrill said crime and safety have become top concerns for many voters, who view safety holistically — not just immigration but also issues including protest violence and domestic terrorism.
“What happened on Saturday will only escalate the crime and safety concerns further,” he said. “What they’re looking for now is someone who can lead on solving this problem.”
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Convention did not respond to requests for comment.
The top priority listed in the Republican platform that will be on the ballot this week is to “seal the border and stop the invasion of immigrants.”
“We will end incursions at the southern border, restore law and order, protect American sovereignty, and create a secure and prosperous future for all Americans,” the platform states.
Trump himself has Echoing the words of Adolf Hitler He said immigrants arriving illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country” and planned to significantly expand detention capacity and deport millions of people each year.
Speaker after speaker at Tuesday’s convention viewed immigration as a threat to public safety.
“Look at the border,” said Trump’s former rival Nikki Haley. “This is the single, greatest threat that Americans face.”
“Democratic policies have brought a dramatic increase in violence, crime and drugs to our communities that we cannot survive,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson. “We cannot allow the millions of illegal aliens they allow to cross our borders, harm our citizens, drain our resources or disrupt our elections.”
“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and noble,” said Michael Morin, Rachel Morin’s brother. The child’s 37-year-old mother was killed while jogging in Maryland last August. The man accused of killing her entered the United States illegally.
“But there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals to enter our country and rob children of their mothers,” said Michael Morin.
Levine, an expert on extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said Trump’s near-assassination and the resulting messaging made people more susceptible to conspiracies and stereotypes.
“There’s a fear narrative behind this, and maliciously coupled with that is a series of so-called attackers who threaten America’s heritage — in other words, these are people who come to our country and speak other languages and practice other religions,” he said.
Sonja Diaz, former executive director of the Institute for Latino Policy and Politics at UCLA and now director of the Latino Futures 2050 Lab, believes the fallout from the Trump assassination attempt will reinvigorate legal and ideas of order, which may reinforce exclusionary enforcement policies and negatively impact immigration.
“The rhetoric is ‘us versus them,’ and ‘them’ is literally right on the U.S.-Mexico border,” she said.
