Nearly 54% of extreme conservatives say the federal government should use violence to stop illegal immigration

  Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has been a staple of his political career, but his attacks on undocumented migrants turned more ominous during his 2024 presidential campaign.

  Beyond disparaging Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, Trump in September compared undocumented immigration with a “military invasion.” And on a radio program in early October, Trump said immigrant criminals have “bad genes.”

  Many Americans want a more secure U.S.-Mexico border specifically and stricter immigration policy in general.

Life on the US-Mexico border is chaotic. An immigration scholar explains why − and it’s not for the reasons that some GOP lawmakers claim

  As debate over U.S. immigration policy heats up during the 2024 presidential campaign, separating fact from fiction on the U.S.-Mexico border becomes increasingly difficult.

  In May 2023, shortly after the end of a public health restriction that allowed U.S. officials to immediately expel asylum-seekers, a team of academic and humanitarian aide colleagues and I went to the Mexican city of Matamoros, just across the Rio Grande from the banks of Brownsville, Texas.

  At the time, we didn’t encounter the “invasion at the border” that conservative lawmakers such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted would happen once the COVID-19 restrictions – officially known as Title 42  – expired.

Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott pull from segregationists’ playbook with their anti-immigration stunts

  As a historian of racism and white supremacy in the United States, I’ve become accustomed to callous actions like those of Republican governors who organized transportation for Latin American migrants to states run by their political opponents.

  Governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida are following the playbook of segregationists who provided one-way bus tickets to Northern cities for Black Southerners in the 1960s. At that time, the fight for racial equality was attracting national attention and support from many white Americans, inspiring some to join interracial Freedom Rides organized by civil rights groups to challenge segregation on interstate bus lines.

Indiana, Iowa and Texas advance anti-transgender agendas – part of a longtime strategy by conservatives to rally their base

  Transgender girls in Iowa will no longer be allowed to compete in girls’ sports – the latest in a rash of anti-trans initiatives sweeping across the United States.

  On March 3, 2022, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation that affects transgender girls and women wanting to compete in accordance with their gender identity.

  It comes just days after legislators in Indiana advanced a similar bill aimed at K-12 trans students.

Texas voting law builds on long legacy of racism from GOP leaders

  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill on Sept. 7, 2021, that reduces opportunities for people to vote, allows partisan poll watchers more access, and creates steeper penalties for violating voting laws.

  The Republican governor argued that the legislation would “solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.” Democratic opponents of the measure, however, said Republican legislators presented no evidence of widespread voter fraud during debate on the bill.