The RNC puts a spotlight on immigration and border control, Trump’s signature issue

Republicans, who are billing their national convention as a show of unity after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, focused the event’s second day on immigration, an issue that generates a lot of his vitriol and some of Trump’s strongest support.

Since he first entered presidential politics in 2016 trashing Mexicans as rapists and vehicles of drugs and crime, Trump has made immigration his “us vs. them” cudgel. His rhetoric set the tone for many other GOP leaders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is part of the Tuesday lineup and who signed a sweeping state immigration law giving local and state officials immigration enforcement powers.

Trump was addressing the issue of immigration in his rally speech Saturday when the shooter opened fire against him, killing one spectator and leaving two others critically injured. Trump had turned his head slightly to the right to view a large chart of immigration statistics, which he has credited with saving his life.

Trump frequently stirs his base by railing against violent crime committed by immigrants, and the theme on the second day convention, “Make America Safe Once Again,” was built on the often misinformed portrayal.

“Democrats have done everything in their power to undermine public safety and law enforcement,” the super PAC Maga Inc. said in a statement that accused prosecutors of allowing criminals to walk free “while an open border floods our communities with untraceable, potentially dangerous criminals.”

Trump’s usually fact-challenged immigration messaging has found a wider audience this election cycle, as border officers and communities across the country have been grappling in the past few years with large numbers of people arriving at the border, often seeking asylum. Polls have shown an increase in voters’ support for tougher border measures and policies, including among Latino voters.

As GOP attendees began rallying around Tuesday’s “Make America Safe Again” immigration theme, border arrests were at the lowest of Biden’s presidency, plunging 30% last month.

Trump has said he is rewriting his convention speech to emphasize unity following the assassination attempt, which some supporters have blamed on President Joe Biden’s rhetoric.

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Trump’s pick of Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican, is seen as bolstering the former president’s immigration agenda. After being announced as running mate, Vance said in an interview with Fox News that he is certain to help further it.

“We have to deport people. We have to deport people who broke our laws, who came here, and I think we start with the violent criminals. And President Trump has been very, very effective at communicating on this, so to the point where now a majority of Americans believe that we need to deport a large number of people who have come here illegally,” Vance said.

Trump critics say his campaign’s caustic rhetoric around immigration is nothing new.

“They want the American public to fear and loathe immigrants. The language they use is alarming and it is the same language and rhetoric that Donald Trump used in his first term. It is the same language and rhetoric that inspired a white supremacist” to carry out the Aug. 3, 2019, massacre in El Paso, Texas, said Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, in a Tuesday conference call organized by America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group.

The gunman in the El Paso massacre told police he was targeting Mexicans. He also published a document online shortly before opening fire saying that the attack was in response to what he called “the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” a term (“invasion”) used by Trump, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott and other Republicans in reference to migrants. The gunman killed 23 people and injured 22 others.

This time around, Trump hasn’t changed his rhetoric and has actually ramped it up. He has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country and that countries are emptying “their jails, prisons and insane asylums.” He has pledged to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history if he is elected, pointing to, but not naming, the Eisenhower administration deportation initiative, known by the racially charged name “Operation Wetback.”

The Biden campaign is reminding voters that Trump separated children from parents or guardians at the border during his presidency, a policy Biden ended after much outrage.

And Democrats are warning of harsher immigration policies to come, outlined in the policy blueprint Project 2025 drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation and some former Trump administration advisers.

“The incredibly dark vision that Donald Trump and his running mate have in store for America is a throwback to very very dark days that we have seen in American history in the past,” Escobar said.

But at the convention, Sharon Yancey of Milwaukee, who attended a panel focused on GOP Black Outreach and Opportunity Zones, said she aligns with Trump’s view on immigration. The borders are “fluid,” she said, which is not “a good thing for our country, definitely for minorities.” Yancey voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

“You need to know who is coming into your country. You need to make it a viable and safe place for everyone,” she told NBC News.