An impassioned Ted Cruz declared to delegates at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, “Americans are dying!” began the U.S. Senator from Texas. “Murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released.” It was all part of the messaging during day two of the GOP convention underway in Milwaukee. The theme on this night: “Make America Safe Again.”
Sen. Cruz cited recent deaths of women, with immigrants charged in their killings, as proof that “Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children.” The GOP platform, released last week, stated that Republicans have a robust plan to end what they've characterized as President Biden's “open border policies.”
Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of El Paso pushed back on that narrative. Escobar says the GOP's rhetoric around the topic is dangerous. “The MAGA extremists that are my colleagues are doing everything possible to paint immigrants as criminals. They want the American public to fear and loathe immigrants.”
Escobar said the language used by former President Trump and fellow Republicans mirrors that of the shooter who killed 23 people in a 2019 attack at an El Paso Walmart. The fifth anniversary of that shooting is on August 3.
Yet research indicates immigrants commit less crimes than U.S.-born people. In fact, research by Stanford University discovered that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.
A video preceded Cruz’s speech, which claimed, among other things, that “Biden’s incompetence has led to a horrific 300,000 Americans now dead, not from a nuclear bomb but from lethal fentanyl brought in through Biden’s wide-open border.” But according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, while much of America’s fentanyl is brought into the country from Mexico, “86.4% of fentanyl trafficking crimes were committed by U.S. citizens in the 12-month period through September 2023.
