Republican rhetoric increasingly uses racist “invasion” language to refer to immigration. Both “invasion” and “replacement” rhetoric rests firmly on a base of racism, xenophobia, and anti-semitism. Anti-immigrant groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA recently rejected this hateful rhetoric, though they may earlier have used it. That language is, increasingly, a staple of Republican campaigns, from the top down. One example: Representative Elise Stefanik, who now denies that she ever used the racist and anti-immigrant “invasion” and “replacement” rhetoric that she has spouted on the record for years.
Immigration–even unauthorized border crossing–is not invasion. Asylum seekers who come, unarmed, and look for U.S. officials so they can turn themselves in are not invaders. Migrants who come with their children, looking for jobs and a better life, are not invaders. “Invasion” rhetoric was the lie used by the all-American terrorists who massacred people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, an El Paso Walmart, and a Buffalo supermarket.
[New York Times] “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 word invasion has appeared in 27 television ads for Republican candidates — accounting for more than $5 million in ad spending — ahead of the November 2024 election, according to early April data from AdImpact, a media tracking firm. That surpasses the 22 uses of the word during the entire 2022 midterm cycle, which totaled nearly $3.3 million in ad spending. During the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, advertisers spent just under $300,000 in four ads that deployed the term.”
Dangerous, armed groups threaten migrants and reporters on the border. At least one of the groups, Border 911, also clearly violates its nonprofit 501(c)(3) status by electioneering for Trump. Their campaign and fundraising events focus on “invasion” and “replacement” rhetoric.
[The Border Chronicle] “In January, I encountered three masked, armed men while I was reporting on asylum seekers arriving at the border wall near Sasabe, Arizona. The men were filming and flying drones over an encampment where humanitarians had set up food, shelter, and water for asylum seekers, who often wait several hours, or even overnight in very rugged conditions, for Border Patrol agents to pick them up to be processed.
“The men, who had covered their faces with neck gaiters, and had pistols strapped to their legs and tactical vests, looked intimidating to say the least. It turns out they were part of a right-wing private security outfit based in Arizona called Mayhem Solutions Group. Four days later they turned up at the camp again with Jaeson Jones, a former Texas DPS captain turned MAGA pundit, who is part of a nonprofit called Border 911, a group of former Trump cabinet members, Fox News pundits, and former law enforcement officers. Border 911 calls itself ‘a group of the most distinguished border security experts.’ …
“While at the camp, the masked men threatened to detain volunteers. …
“Groups like Border 911 are not just spreading lies about the border; they’re deploying a political strategy to propel Trump back into the White House. Border 911 members, who include former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott, former acting ICE commissioner Tom Homan, and former acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan, are holding events across the country, especially in swing states, to convince voters that the country is being invaded and that only Trump can save them.”
And in other news
A new rule just published by the Biden administration will give added protection to the 300,000+ seasonal farm workers who form an essential part of the U.S. farm and food system, Final publication of the rule is the culmination of an eight-month process that began last September.
[AP] “Reports of overcrowded farm vehicles and fatalities have increased as the number of guest farmworkers has risen, officials say. Transportation accidents are a leading cause of death for farmworkers.
“The new rule will require farmers who employ H-2A workers to make sure the vans and buses they use to transport workers long distances — and that are often driven by tired workers — have seatbelts for all passengers.
“The new rule also protects temporary agricultural workers from employer retaliation if they meet with legal service providers or union representatives at the housing provided by the employer. It also protects them from retaliation when they decline to attend “captive audience” meetings organized by their employer.
“And in a step intended to counter human trafficking, employers would be required to identify anyone recruiting workers on their behalf in the U.S. or foreign countries and to provide copies of any agreements they have with those recruiters.”
Immigrants settle in both urban and rural areas across the country, often bolstering the sagging economies and demographic deficits of rural areas.
[Washington Post] “Immigrants slowed demographic decline in more than 1,100 counties from 2020 to 2023, according to census estimates. Their numbers made up more than the entire growth of the population in 131 of them. The demographic reality casts immigration in a different light, not as a burden but as an opportunity: a powerful tool to lift vast swaths of America that prosperity has left behind.
“It would require smart policy and political will — neither of which is plentiful in Washington …
“If politicians made even rudimentary changes to the system, and if more localities recognized the opportunity in front of them, all parties — border communities, struggling Rust Belt towns, big cities swamped with asylum seekers — could win.”
Despite Haiti’s still-pervasive violence and lack of a functioning government or police force, the United States resumed deportations.
[New York Times] “Immigration officials sent dozens of Haitians back to their home country on [April 18], according to three government officials, in the first deportation flight conducted by the United States government in months to the country, which has been gripped by widespread violence. …
“The U.S. government itself advises Americans not to visit Haiti, citing “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure,” and has previously told family members of American officials in Haiti to leave. …
“Word that deportations had restarted brought denunciations from other House Democrats. ‘Given the current dangers and lack of central government, we should not be deporting people to Haiti. Period,’ Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said on social media.
“Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, said that Haitians were predominantly waiting for appointments at ports of entry to enter the United States through a government app, as the administration has encouraged, instead of crossing the border.
“’It’s hard to explain the urgency to deport Haitians,’ he said in a text message. “Among nationalities whose citizens have crossed the border irregularly, Haiti has been the number-15 nationality over the past 6 months, way behind China, India, even Turkey.”
Immigration news 