Combating the Nativist Narrative
Week of September 25, 2023
New evidence shows “open borders” disinformation is a factor driving migration:
This week, the Dallas Morning News in an article titled, “Poll: Disinformation about ‘open borders’ helps spur migrant surge”, reported on a new poll from America’s Voice that adds to the evidence that Republicans and right-wing media’s incessant false claims that the border is open is a factor driving desperate families to make the harrowing trip to the US border. A key finding of the research: “U.S. politicians’ rhetoric about “open borders” is encouraging some Central Americans to make the journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. Those who have heard messages from U.S. politicians that the border is open are significantly more likely to believe that the border is open.” Additionally, those interviewed in the poll who were exposed to the disinformation about the border being open, as opposed to those hearing the truth, were almost twice as likely to consider making the journey or recommending someone to do so. The research also found that people in the region are hearing – and believing – this disinformation. A fact that is not surprising given the volume and velocity at which the right is pumping out the “open borders” disinformation. Research from Media Matters found Fox News has mentioned open borders 3,842 times from November 1, 2020, through August 22, 2023, which amounts to about $30 million in advertising dollars. America’s Voice has identified 832 unique tweets from Republicans that use “open borders” misinformation from the end of February 23, 2023 to August 18, 2023. We have also found at least 97 pieces of paid communication from GOP candidates/party entities that advance “open borders” misinformation in 2023. Both numbers grow each day as pushing “open borders” disinformation is a regular part of the GOP’s daily message. For example, both Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis amplified “open borders” disinformation on the presidential debate stage this week. While those in Central America who may be considering fleeing north for the safety of their family may not be diligently following Republicans’ messaging, these elected leaders play a key role in validating and disseminating the disinformation that is part of the package that smugglers use to convince desperate people that now is the time to spend all their money with them to go to the border now. Even without a direct one to one it is clear that Republicans and right-wing media are feeding this problem, not combating it. Read the full poll memo HERE.
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: “These words by politicians and the message of open borders are being consumed throughout the region, and used by smugglers who are trying to prey on people’s desperation,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Politicians need to realize that words matter, and by spreading disinformation for political gain, they’re actually making the problem worse.” There is only one party yelling disinformation about the border being open into any microphone they can find, disinformation that is a gift to cartels and smugglers that only serves to exacerbate the challenges of migration.
Republicans continue to normalize the replacement and invasion conspiracy to describe the border:
Descriptions of non-white migrants as literal “invasion” is a conspiracy theory deeply rooted in racism and antisemitism and has inspired multiple domestic terrorist attacks the GOP has casually adopted fiction. Last week in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on closing bankruptcy loopholes, Ranking Member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took the opportunity to amplify the great replacement conspiracy theory claiming that there is "literally an invasion" of migrants currently ongoing at our southern border. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) put out a video this week in her official capacity as Senator that boldly asserts the “invasion” conspiracy. Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a resolution this week to officially declare that migrants and asylum seekers constitute a literal “invasion.” Not only is this a dangerous normalization of a white nationalist fiction, he argues the point from a debunked legal theory that was laughed out of the courts. Yesterday, on Fox News, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued the same deadly racist point. And over the last two weeks, at least 14 different elected Republicans in the House took to X to amplify the “replacement” and “invasion” conspiracy fearmongering about the increased number of migrant encounters along the southern border. Every single one of these Members echoing domestic terrorists did so in their official capacity as Members of Congress.
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: While this development is no longer surprising it must remain shocking. The GOP is crossing a dangerous threshold of dehumanization with this rhetoric, especially as the calls turn to policy. The language may only appear a matter of degrees but “replacement” and “invasion” rhetoric reaches a dangerous temperature. What was once a neo-Nazi talking point is now the talking point of the Republican Congressional delegation. That is a fact. It's a hard one to reconcile but one that is glaringly staring us in the face.
Wild anti-Chinese conspiracies bubbling up again:
Back in March, alongside an increase in Chinese nationals seeking asylum along the southern border, the right started to spread a conspiracy theory that this marginal increase was part of a nefarious and elaborate plot by the Chinese government to attack, spy, and destabilize the U.S. As numbers rise again, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) is, with the help of Fox News, again blasting these thinly veiled racist conspiracies to a national audience. On Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox last week, Rep. Green claimed that Chinese nationals seeking asylum was “a planned thing from China. There is no way it’s not.” He went on to claim these asylum seekers are all sleeper agents ready to become saboteurs on orders from Xi Jinping. This outlandish conspiracy that reeks of centuries-old racism, was not challenged by Bartiromo but reintroduced in a later segment by Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Paraphrasing Rep. Green, Bartiromo claimed, “Xi Jinping, he is actually sending military-aged men to settle here until he is ready to give them a directive to be a saboteur… who knows what they can do? Start wildfires, I don’t know.” Rep. Green’s conspiracy was also presented on another Fox News segment to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who wholeheartedly agreed with the conspiracy. Immigrants getting falsely blamed for starting wildfires is not a new thing among the right-wing, either. Both Rep. Greene and Senator Blackburn went on to amplify the white nationalist replacement conspiracy theory in their responses to being favorably relayed Rep. Green’s bigoted anti-Chinese conspiracy.
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: This conspiracy theory about a baseless nefarious threat posed by Chinese nationals seeking asylum, simply because of where they were born puts a dangerous target on the backs of the AAPI community, harkening back to the long history of racism directed towards Chinese immigrants and our more recent history as well. Our asylum system is designed to be able to provide refuge from repressive regimes like the current government in China. Let’s be clear these conspiracies have nothing to do with concern for the safety of the United States, but are strategic racist political attacks that court bigoted political violence.
POLITICS UPDATES
Presidential primary debate: Much like the first, the second Republican presidential primary debate was a sideshow to the actual contest without Donald Trump in attendance, but the veil and often dangerous extremism on full display sets the party line and tone for the down-ballot races across the country. Receiving the first question of the night, Tim Scott made a hard pivot from a question about striking auto workers to nativist attacks on the border. Vivek Ramaswamy attacked the 14th Amendment on a baseless legal argument, arguing for a return to a time when US citizenship was firmly rooted in white supremacy. Mike Pence refused to answer a question about protecting Dreamers, likely dodging the question because he knows the extremism of the GOP is out of step with the vast majority of Americans who support a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients. It’s worth remembering that it was also the Trump-Pence administration that rescinded the popular and successful DACA program. Ron DeSantis employed the white nationalist “invasion” conspiracy that has inspired multiple domestic terrorists, and he continued to beat the war drum, talking about invading Mexico. Doug Burgum also joined many of those on the stage who have embraced and amplified the great replacement conspiracy theory as they talk about the border. A dangerous situation that experts and advocates warned about before the debate began. And most of the candidates found an opportunity to peddle pernicious lies about the fentanyl crisis, not offering any real solutions but strategic racism that looks to falsely make fentanyl an immigration and border issue. Lies that pollute the discussion on solutions on the fentanyl crisis the American people desperately need. Nor did any candidate on stage offer real solutions to address immigration challenges. What was on offer was the same cruelty, chaos, and cynical politics that only exacerbates problems.
Digital Ads: X announced at the beginning of the year that they were reversing course and allowing political ads back onto the platform. Their ads repository is an opaque mess. But Ron DeSantis’ campaign appears to be taking advantage of the new ad space, running dozens of ads a day on the platform. One of his most popular ads advances the “replacement” and “invasion” conspiracy theory. The DeSantis campaign is also running ads on Meta pushing the racist conspiracy theory. We have seen similar behavior before. A New York Times report in 2019 found that Donald Trump had run over 2,000 ads with “invasion” rhetoric in the lead up to the white nationalist terror attack in El Paso, where the mass murder was inspired by the “invasion” conspiracy. There is no denying the potential for downstream racist political violence from normalizing the “invasion” conspiracy. Meta and X are willing to collect marginal checks to help facilitate walking down this path, knowing exactly where it leads, we are not talking about political speech but incitement.
FOX to GOP nativist ad pipeline: In a predictable pattern, the b-roll footage shot by Fox News reporters on the border is all but an in-kind donation to the GOP that quickly jumps for the cable outlet to Republican political ads. The latest footage we discussed last week jumped to a minute-long ad from the National Republican Coordinating Committee (NRCC) this week. Their xenophobic political video also uses New York Mayor Eric Adams and the nativist protests he encouraged as validation for their attack. Because this video is the predictable output of the nativist narrative machine, it also provides a clear illustration of how these nativist narratives are constructed and disseminated.
WEEKLY STATS OF NATIVIST NARRATIVE
Of the 525 GOP Twitter accounts we track, this week, they sent:
910 original tweets peddling anti-immigrant attacks mentioning “border”
151 original tweets about “open borders,” with Greg Abbott tweet having the most reach with 268.4K Views, 2,439 Retweets, and 11.3K Likes.
56 original tweets that used “Biden Border Crisis” with Ted Cruz tweet having the most reach with 96.1K Views, 1,700 Retweets, and 4,872 Likes.
60 original tweets that mentioned both “fentanyl” and “border” with Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet having the most reach with 284.4K views, 4,608 Retweets and 14.9K Likes.
