Dear friend,

As the 2024 election approaches, I’m increasingly concerned about how those on the right are talking about immigrants.

This week was the two-year anniversary of the anti-Black mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. You may remember what happened: a gunman killed ten people in a grocery store in New York, while leaving behind a racist screed about why he needed to kill “replacers” and how immigrants and non-whites are threatening white power.

This kind of racist conspiracy – known as “replacement theory” – used to be the province of white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Unfortunately, in the last few years, this rhetoric has been embraced by none other than Republican members of Congress.

We released a report about that this week. Our report found that 165 Republican members of the current Congress have mentioned replacement theory 1,259 times – often on the floor of Congress or elsewhere in their official capacities as elected officials. These Republicans (and their allies) have created 46 TV ads and 202 Facebook ads worth $10.7 million echoing the same deadly rhetoric.

I want to repeat – two years ago, an extremist gunman, led by the worst kind of anti-Black and anti-immigrant ideas, murdered ten innocent people. And rather than shunning the dangerous rhetoric that motivated him, Republicans are embracing it.

Why? Republicans think that demonizing immigrants will help them win this year’s election. And they want to preemptively delegitimize the election in case they lose.

It’s a truly dangerous game that Republicans are playing, one in which they seem to be ignoring the potential for deadly consequences.

In this, they’re led by Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has called immigrants “vermin” and “not people.” He’s said that if he’s reelected, he’ll go into blue states and run the biggest mass deportation operation in history. Never mind that immigrants are part of our families and communities, contribute billions to the economy every year, and would cost billions to deport.

We can’t let this happen. As always, we at America’s Voice will keep you updated and informed so you can stay engaged this election season. We all have to do everything we can to keep Trump’s mass deportation vision from becoming a reality.

In solidarity,

Ivonne

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