By WILL WEISSERT and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The video shared by former President Donald Trump has scary music and footage of migrants reportedly entering the U.S. from countries like Cameroon, Afghanistan and China. Scenes of men with tattoos and videos of violent crime are shown alongside close-up shots of people waving and wrapping themselves in American flags.
In the video posted on his social media site, Trump says, “They’re coming by the thousands. We will secure our borders. And we will restore sovereignty.”
Trump has increased his anti-immigrant talk in speeches and online posts as he runs for the White House a third time, portraying migrants as dangerous criminals “poisoning the blood” of America. His message often relies on lies about migration, but it resonates with many of his main supporters who have been chanting “build the wall” at his rallies for a decade.
President Joe Biden and his allies talk about the border in a different way. The Democrat sees the situation as a policy disagreement that Congress can resolve and criticizes Republicans in Washington for backing down from a border security deal after facing criticism from Trump.
But for Biden, Trump’s message seems to be appealing to important parts of the Democratic coalition that Biden needs to win over this November.
About two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of how Biden is dealing with border security, including about 40% of Democrats, 55% of Black adults and 73% of Hispanic adults, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in March.
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 45% of Americans described the situation as a crisis, while another 32% said it was a major problem.
Vetress Boyce, a racial justice activist based in Chicago, was one of those who expressed frustration with Biden’s immigration policies and the city’s approach to sheltering newly arriving migrants. She argued that Democrats should concentrate on investing in Black communities, not newcomers.
“They’re sending us people who are starving, the same way Blacks are starving in this country. They’re sending us people who want to escape the conditions and come here for a better lifestyle when the ones here are suffering and have been suffering for over 100 years,” Boyce said. “That recipe is a mixture for disaster. It’s a disaster just waiting to happen.”
Gracie Martinez, a 52-year-old Hispanic small business owner from Eagle Pass, Texas, the border town that Trump visited in February when he and Biden made same-day trips to the state. Martinez said she once voted for former President Barack Obama and is still a Democrat, but now supports Trump — mainly because of the border.
“It’s terrible,” she said. “There are tons and tons of people, and they’re getting medical care, money, phones,” she said, complaining that those who went through the legal immigration system are treated worse.
Priscilla Hesles, 55, a teacher who resides in Eagle Pass, Texas, described the current situation as almost a takeover that had altered the town.
“We are uncertain of their locations. We do not know where they have secretly entered and where they will emerge,” said Hesles, who mentioned she used to take an evening stroll to a nearby church but ceased after a troubling encounter with a group of men she claims were migrants.
Immigration will likely be a major concern in the November election, with both sides spending the next six months attempting to portray the other as mistaken on border security.
The president’s reelection campaign recently initiated a $30 million ad campaign targeting Latino audiences in key swing states that includes a digital ad in English and Spanish emphasizing Trump’s previous characterization of Mexican immigrants as “criminals” and “rapists.”
The White House has also considered a series of executive actions that could significantly tighten immigration restrictions, effectively bypassing Congress after it failed to pass the bipartisan deal Biden supported.
“Trump is a phony who is solely concerned with himself,” said Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz. “We will ensure voters are aware of this come November.”
Trump will campaign Tuesday in Wisconsin and Michigan this week, where he is expected to once again criticize Biden on immigration. His campaign stated his event in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids will focus on what they alleged was “Biden’s Border Bloodbath.”
The former president calls recent record-high arrests for southwest border crossings an “invasion” orchestrated by Democrats to transform America’s very makeup. Trump accuses Biden of deliberately allowing criminals and potential terrorists to enter the country unchecked, going so far as to claim the president is engaged in a “conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.”
He also portrays migrants — many of them women and children fleeing poverty and violence — as “poisoning the blood” of America with drugs and disease and alleged that some are “not people.” Experts who study extremism caution against using dehumanizing language to describe migrants.
There is no evidence that foreign governments are releasing their prisoners or mental health patients as Trump asserts. While conservative news coverage has been dominated by several high-profile and atrocious crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally, the latest FBI statistics indicate overall violent crime in the U.S. decreased again last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era surge.
Studies have also revealed that individuals living in the country illegally are much less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug, and property crimes.
“Certainly the last several months have shown a clear change in political support,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the immigrant resettlement group Global Refuge and a former Obama administration and State Department official.
“I believe this is related to the rhetoric of the past several years,” she said, “and the fact that a loud, extreme, xenophobic rhetoric has gone unchallenged by reality and the actual situation.”
One reason the border issue is so important is that its effects are being felt far from the border.
Allies of Trump, especially Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have used state-paid buses to move over 100,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities like New York, Denver, and Chicago, where Democrats will have their convention this summer. While the program was first seen as just a way to get attention, the sudden increase has put a lot of pressure on city budgets and caused local leaders to rush to provide emergency housing and medical care for new groups of migrants.
Local news reports have frequently been negative. Viewers have seen migrants being accused of causing a series of gang-related robberies in New Jersey, burglary rings targeting stores in suburban Philadelphia, and measles cases in parts of Arizona and Illinois.
Abbott has sent the Texas National Guard to the border, put up razor wire along parts of the Rio Grande against U.S. Supreme Court orders, and argued that his state should be able to enforce its own immigration laws.
Certain far-right websites have started to see Abbott’s actions as the first step in a coming civil war. Russia has also helped spread and amplify false and inflammatory content about U.S. immigration and border security as part of its wider efforts to divide Americans. According to an analysis by the company Logically, which watches Russian disinformation, online influencers and social media accounts connected to the Kremlin have taken on the idea of a new civil war and efforts by states like Texas to leave the union.
Amy Cooter, who leads research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, is concerned that the current talk of civil war will only increase as the election gets closer. So far, it has mostly been seen on far-right message boards. But immigration is enough of a worry in general that its political power is heightened, Cooter said.
“Non-extremist Americans are worried about this, too,” she said. “It’s about culture and ideas about who is an American.”
Meanwhile, there are people like Rudy Menchaca, a bar owner in Eagle Pass who also works for a company that brings in Corona beer from Mexico. He blames the border problems for hurting his business.
Menchaca is the type of Hispanic voter Biden is hoping will support his campaign for reelection. The 27-year-old said he never liked Trump’s language and how he talked about Hispanics and Mexicans. “We’re not all like that,” he said.
But he also said he was starting to consider supporting the former president because of the reality on the ground.
“I need those soldiers to be around if I have my business,” Menchaca said of Texas forces sent to the border. “The bad ones that come in could break in.”
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