Trump’s Immigration Lies Paid Off at the Polls

In February 2020, Donald Trump stated, “I may get elected twice over the wall.” Now he has been elected to a second time period.

Following a dramatic presidential race that noticed Vice President Kamala Harris change President Joe Biden because the Democratic nominee, The Related Press declared Donald Trump the winner on Wednesday.

Immigration dominated the 2024 election cycle, highlighting stark variations between the candidates’ rhetoric and coverage proposals. As Trump made hundreds of false statements connecting unauthorized migrants to crime and different social issues, polls confirmed rising help amongst voters for lowering immigration. Harris struck a extra optimistic tone, however her coverage proposals — whereas extra average than Trump’s — nonetheless skewed to the best of the Democratic Get together’s conventional strategy to immigration.

Forward of the election, The Marshall Mission analyzed greater than 12,000 of Trump’s public statements about immigration accessible on Factba.se, a public database of presidential candidate statements. Trump relied closely on repetition; Marshall Mission reporters recognized his most repeated falsehoods about immigrants, a few of which he made 500 occasions or extra.

Analysis exhibits that the extra occasions an individual hears an announcement, the extra seemingly they’re to imagine it, whether or not it’s true or not.

One in every of Trump’s most repeated claims this 12 months was that there are tens of millions of immigrants crossing the southern U.S. border who had been deliberately launched from overseas jails, prisons and asylums, particularly in nations like Venezuela. These claims have been routinely debunked by journalists, researchers and fact-checkers.

Pressed a number of occasions, the Trump marketing campaign has not supplied corroboration of the statements. Nonetheless, Trump repeated the declare not less than 560 occasions.

Trump’s said plans for immigration coverage in his second time period are a continuation of his first.

He vows to complete building of a wall alongside the 1,900-mile-long U.S. border with Mexico. About 450 miles of border partitions had been reportedly constructed throughout his first time period, although 81% of the development was changing outdated buildings. Regardless of the confirmed ineffectiveness of such a wall and its value to taxpayers, Trump has repeated the need of a wall greater than 675 occasions.

Trump has outlined plans to hold out mass deportations at a historic scale, eradicating tens of millions of undocumented individuals. He’s proposed using migrant detention camps, office raids and army enforcement, describing the Eisenhower administration’s “Operation Wetback” as a mannequin for humane deportations. Historians broadly describe the Eisenhower deportations as inhumane, and critics of Trump’s proposal warn such an enormous change in inhabitants may result in unpredictable financial results on the nation.

Trump additionally stated he would restore insurance policies from his first administration, together with barring entry to individuals from Muslim-majority nations, separating households on the border, requiring immigrants to stay in Mexico whereas their asylum instances are processed and halting applications for refugees. He claims he would finish birthright citizenship for individuals born within the U.S. to undocumented immigrants.

Students have lengthy famous the cumulative impact of scapegoating immigration, stating how rhetoric shapes public opinion and coverage. Specialists say Trump’s language on immigration has been instrumental in shifting the boundaries of acceptable discourse, making harsh insurance policies like household separation or mass deportation appear extra palatable.

Polls point out that extra Individuals favor lowering immigration and strengthening border restrictions. A July Gallup ballot discovered that 55% of respondents wished much less immigration — the best polling numbers in practically twenty years.

Extra surveys this 12 months confirmed public help for stricter border measures, with many Individuals viewing immigration as a key nationwide challenge. In Arizona, 63% of polled voters backed Proposition 314, a poll measure making it a state crime to cross the border with Mexico outdoors official entry factors, permitting native authorities to implement immigration legal guidelines extra straight.

Falsely linking immigration and crime has resulted in actual insurance policies prior to now in each Republican and Democratic administrations. These embody Safe Communities, a Division of Homeland Safety Program that flags immigrants in native regulation enforcement custody for deportation, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which delegates some immigration enforcement duties to native regulation enforcement.

Specialists say such insurance policies don’t work, and distract from dialogue of true causes and options.

“None of [these policies] delivered the elevated public security that was promised,” Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, regulation and society on the College of Washington. “Why? As a result of immigrant criminality was not an issue to start with.”

Study how The Marshall Mission is protecting the 2024 election’s felony justice and immigration points throughout the U.S. and in our native information groups’ cities.