Pre-Joint Address Cheat Sheet – If President Trump Says the Following on Immigration

Article from America’s Voice

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Washington, DC – As we previewed yesterday, Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress will undoubtedly include a heavy immigration focus. As Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice stated, “We don’t need to see prepared remarks to already know that every sentence Donald Trump will say about immigrants on Tuesday night will include a noun, a verb, and an ugly lie on immigration.” Below are key immigration subjects that are likely to come up tonight – and a cheat sheet of resources, facts and context you need to know.

If Trump highlights the planned “largest deportation” in American history:

• Know that the Trump administration is not targeting public safety threats and the “worst of the worst” as promised, but instead is going after long-settled and deeply rooted immigrants – as their early enforcement actions underscore.
• They are laying the groundwork for indiscriminate deportations, seeking to purge as many immigrants as possible – including many here with current legal status and those in mixed-status families with U.S. citizen children – and have removed common sense priorities to direct immigration enforcement against public safety threats.
• Mass deportations come at a high cost to all Americans and, meanwhile, won’t advance public safety or move us closer to fixing a broken immigration system.

If Trump touts his economic vision and record:

• Know that Trump and Republicans’ immigration vision is at direct odds with a growing economy and combating inflation.
• From spiking inflation and depressing our economy to harming disaster recovery efforts to de-prioritizing actual public safety threats to cutting crucial kitchen table and healthcare programs for seniors, children and working families to fund mass deportations, all Americans will pay a high price because of Trump and Republicans’ chaotic and cruel immigration agenda and mass deportation obsessions.
• As CNN phrased, “Economists say immigration is the solution America’s economy needs. That’s a dilemma — because the White House says immigration is the problem.”

If Trump claims “victory” regarding the declining monthly border numbers:

• Know that he’s ignoring the trendline and the fact that border encounters and apprehensions also declined precipitously during the last six months of the Biden Administration.
• Also recall that throughout 2019 during Trump’s first term, border encounters were the highest in more than a decade, spiking to about triple the totals of when he took office. And in December 2020 – the final month of the first Trump administration – border encounters were at the highest level for a December in more than two decades and had been rising for months.
• It’s a reminder that global migration is complicated and the ebb and flow of border numbers – under Trump and under Biden – demonstrate why we need a full immigration overhaul from Congress to equip America for 21st century migration; not the enforcement-only agenda of this administration.

If Trump claims the immigration “invasion” is over or other anti-immigrant conspiracies:

• Remember that mainstreaming the “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies, which originated in white nationalist circles, has a direct link to mass shootings in El Paso, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and elsewhere
• Beyond just being dangerous rhetoric, the “invasion” conspiracy also is the justification for a host of anti-immigrant executive orders – all based on the false notion that America is under an assault which must be repelled by force.

If Trump claims immigrants are responsible for the fentanyl crisis:

• Know that we need real solutions to address this problem, not scapegoating immigrants and asylum seekers. Illicit fentanyl is predominantly brought in by U.S. citizens for U.S. citizen consumption and is smuggled in alongside commercial traffic – not transported by migrants.
• Meanwhile, the high costs of the Trump administration’s mass deportation obsessions include forcing DHS investigators to shift from drug interdiction and anti-drug trafficking efforts toward low-level immigration enforcement.

If Trump tries to whitewash his first-term immigration record:

• Know that Trump’s first term on immigration was a cruel and chaotic failure (see here).
• Despite his cruel policies, Trump presided over upticks of arrivals at our southern border throughout his presidency – including a 2019 “crisis” and a 40% increase in border arrivals during the first part of 2020 that Trump’s allies tried to pin on President Biden while Trump was still in office.
• He dismantled our immigration system – the asylum process, visa channels, the refugee program, among others – which has contributed to the broken system we see today.
• His first-term included policies that separated toddlers from their parents at the border; banning Muslim and African families from entering America, even with approved visas; funneling billions toward an ineffective border wall breached by a $20 handsaw; attacking legal and lawful immigration and slashing new arrivals to the U.S. precipitously; and ugly attacks on popular and successful policies like the DACA program for Dreamers.
• Now, he’s going even further in his second term, seeking to advance more cruelty and chaos while moving us farther from a 21st century immigration system that advances America’s interests.

If Trump highlights crimes and the tragic killings of U.S. citizens by immigrants:

• The data are clear: immigrants and immigration are not correlated with crime. Crime has fallen, and claims of an increase in crime rates committed by migrants have been widely and repeatedly debunked.
• Trump and allies use isolated crimes committed by immigrants for attempted political gain – an ugly tactic with a sordid history designed to advance a narrative that migrants and asylum seekers are dangerous threats when the facts demonstrate otherwise.

Additional Resources

• Read the America’s Voice assessment, “Three Key Immigration Points Ahead of Trump’s Tuesday Speech”
• Read about the new America’s Voice “At What Cost” campaign, highlighting how Trump and Congressional Republicans’ plans for unsparing mass deportations are funded by cuts to Medicaid and de-prioritization of real public safety threats
• Read the new Substack from America’s Voice Research Associate Yuna Oh, “Want to Know What Trump Will Say Tonight? Follow the Stench from CPAC”