“We have to stop this. We can’t accept this much immigration anymore. Especially with all the crime it’s causing.”
At 84, on the steps of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum on the second day of the Republican National Convention, Bob Crowther, an Illinois Republican, admitted he has many opinions on many issues.
“We should send them all home and build a wall, like the Chinese did with the Great Wall.”
Under very high surveillance since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last Saturday in Pennsylvania, the large political gathering continued on Tuesday, putting security at the heart of its discussions of the day, with the fight against immigration in the background, a key theme for the former president to mobilize his troops.
On Monday, delegates from all states adopted the Republican platform for the November presidential election. The terse document, compared to platforms from previous years, is barely 16 pages long and promises, among other things, to “carry out the largest deportation operation (of illegal immigrants) in the history of the United States.” A proposal widely supported by the participants in this convention met by The dutyincluding several from immigrant backgrounds themselves.
“Immigration needs to be organized,” said Flor de Lis Grotestan, who came from Florida to represent a group called Patriotes Anticommunistes in Milwaukee. “I was born in Cuba. I had to leave my country when Castro’s communists took over. I know where that can lead. The United States was built on immigration, that’s true. But it’s time to better regulate it.”
Last May on CNN, Donald Trump revealed a little more about his plan to fight against what he calls an “invasion”, a concept that feeds fears and the conspiracy theory called the “great replacement” promoted by his new running mate, JD Vance. The former president spoke of expelling “15 to 20 million undocumented immigrants”, figures that are undoubtedly higher than the real number of people with this status in the United States, estimated at 11.3 million in 2022 by the Center for Immigration Studies.
Guests in harmony with Trump
In Milwaukee on Tuesday, speakers took to the stage to amplify the Republican candidate’s message, like him conflating immigration, crime and social issues. “I’ve never seen anything worse than the Biden administration’s open borders policy,” said Mike Rogers, a Michigan politician who dreams of becoming a senator from his home state in Washington. “They’ve rolled out the red carpet for criminals, for fentanyl, for Chinese spies, for terrorists … We should have brought back law and order a long time ago.”
“The borders have become our greatest threat,” said former US ambassador Nikki Haley, who fought fiercely against Donald Trump in the Republican primary and who assured the former president of her “strongest” support on Tuesday night. “Under Joe Biden, immigrants are arriving by the thousands every day. We don’t know who they are, where they’re landing and what they’re planning to do.”
In front of supporters who welcomed her call for party unity, the former governor of South Carolina added: “Kamala Harris (the vice president) had one job, one job only: to solve the problem at the border. Now, imagine if she was responsible for the whole country”, a prospect that Nikki Haley has been suggesting for months, estimating that if Joe Biden is re-elected, he will not be able to complete his term.
“Our borders were more secure under Donald Trump,” said Ron DeSantis, another Trump opponent who also publicly buried the hatchet at the Republican convention on Tuesday. The Florida governor hammered home that Joe Biden was the tool of the radical left that “supports open borders that allow millions of illegals to pour into our communities.” “But don’t send them to Martha’s Vineyard,” where the Republican rebelliously had 50 Venezuelans flown in 2022 from San Antonio, Texas, to annoy liberals living on this posh Massachusetts island. “It makes them angry.”
“If you came here illegally under Joe Biden, you’re going to go back where you came from under Donald Trump,” said Rep. Jim Banks, who is seeking the Indiana Senate seat in November.
Forgotten facts
In June, arrests of illegal immigrants fell 29% compared to May, with 83,000 made by border services. The decline follows a series of sweeping measures by the Joe Biden administration to tighten border control, mainly in Republican-dominated states that border Mexico.
In 2023, 864 of these illegals were arrested nationwide for engaging in burglary, robbery, larceny or fraud, according to recent data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. By comparison, the FBI recorded 899,000 burglaries nationwide in 2022 alone, committed at private residences and businesses. Those numbers were not shared with attendees at the Republican convention Tuesday.
“As an immigrant myself, from the Philippines, I have no problem with the border closures,” said Rep. Santos Lopez, a Republican from New York State. “What we want is simple: to keep the bad apples out of the basket.”
According to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics published in June, the expulsion of illegal workers, who are heavily involved in several sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and manufacturing, would have the potential to raise inflation by 0.5 to 3.1 percent in 2025, depending on two scenarios: the expulsion of 1.5 million or 7.5 million people.
A mass deportation could also come with a huge bill for the U.S. government. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection’s escorting of 142,580 illegal immigrants across the border cost American taxpayers $420 million, according to agency data.
The Republican National Convention on Wednesday will continue its focus on Donald Trump’s foreign policies, ahead of the Republican nominee’s grand coronation night on Thursday.