For the past eight years, Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been creating hysteria around immigration. During the 2016 campaign, the former president brought an extreme type of rhetoric that hadn’t been seen since the likes of Eisenhower. He made sweeping accusations about Mexican migrants referring to them as drug dealers and mentally ill, and then advocated for a border wall that would cost billions of dollars. Over the years, new outlets like Fox have fanned the flames, causing immigration to skyrocket as a national concern. According to a Gallup Poll, 48% of Americans said they care about illegal immigration “a great deal”. Commentators like Tucker Carlson and Jesse Waters constantly recycled stories of drug dealers and edge cases of migrants murdering American citizens. As a result, the American population has pushed extremely right on this issue.
Despite Trump’s original rhetoric being extreme compared to his counterparts, it was slightly more tame compared to now. In 2015 he said, “They’re rapist. And some I assume are good people.” An absolutely horrific statement and one can only assume that the last line was disingenuous even back then but his 2024 version doesn’t even attempt to message in a more moderate manner. Now he makes absolute statements calling all migrants, “animals” and “not human” in a recent Michigan speech.
The Democratic Party has trailed right behind, mirroring 2020 Republicans. Despite Biden running against the border wall in the last election, once in office, he continued to fund it and pushed for a republican border bill to be passed. Kamala Harris and other politicians who pledged to take a more liberal approach to immigration in 2020, now call for tough reform and carry on the fentanyl narrative despite 90% of the drug crossing through normal points of entry by US citizens according to the Department of Homeland Security. So what truly separates the two parties? Time?
The lack of pushback on either side has led to the culmination of back-to-back fake stories that are targeting this vulnerable group. The first in Aurora, Colorado that claimed a Venezuelan gang had overtaken an apartment. The second was in Springfield, Ohio, where Haitian immigrants were accused by their neighbors of eating cats. So how did two stories on two opposite sides of the country get picked up by the internet, and recited by the former president on national television, only to incite bomb threats and proud boy marches? With such a large number of international students here at SCAD, this very well could affect the people around us.
Aurora, Colorado
In Aurora, Colorado at The Edge Apartments, a woman takes a video of several young men carrying guns through the halls and what appears to be breaking into an apartment. That video is then circulated on social media and goes viral. It was picked up by conservatives who linked the video to the presence of Tren de Argua gang members. This is a narrative that the owner of The Edge Apartments had been floating around for months when he sent a letter to the police stating the Venezuelan gang had “taken control”.
However, this entire story had a huge flaw: none of it was true. There are still no answers for what truly occurred in the viral video. The area is not a stranger to crime but the claim that they are gang members is at best a rumor. But by the time, anyone began to engage in any sort of counter-messaging, the story was out of hand. Conservatives were claiming the Hell’s Angels were heading to the apartments to “handle it” and everyone now knew Aurora for all the wrong reasons.
As stated before, the management company of the Edge Apartments, CBZ Management started the false rumors. The owner used the story as a scapegoat for his not one but three slum-like apartments in the city. There were reports of trash overflowing due to the management company refusing to pay a private trash company, rat and bug infestations, sewage backups, and deteriorating infrastructure – some of the worst health violations, these residents had to live in. Due to the horrid conditions, these buildings were left in, the owner was charged in a municipal court and had one of them condemned. The Mayor in a statement pointed out a glaring sign, “I believe fundamentally that there is some element of truth to all of this, but it’s interesting that when we have the problems of the allegations of criminal activities and gang activity, the pattern is with one ownership and the pattern is quite frankly is they are out-of-state slumlords,” Coffman said. Aurora police have been investigating gang activity in the city but say there is no gang taking over the apartment.
But now residents of the apartment fear eviction and going outside. The building could very well face condemnation similar to one of CBZ’s other properties, leaving them with nowhere to go. Residents have also received threatening racist messages calling them “animals”, violent threats against their safety, and even people coming to their building with signs reading “We’re going to take Aurora back.” There is no denying that the increase in violent rhetoric regular citizens are engaging in, believing these residents don’t have a place in Aurora simply because they are brown immigrants stems from Trump’s virulently racist messaging. Sadly, it has become all too acceptable to think this way.
Springfield, Ohio
About 1300 miles away from Aurora, this hateful rhetoric was boiling up once more. Rumors began when a Facebook post accusing Haitians of eating cats in Springfield was reposted on YouTube. The story went viral among Republicans similar to the Aurora story and was repeated by online conservative commentators like Matt Walsh and YouTube vultures such as Tyler Oliveria. It spread rapidly, reaching its peak when vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, repeated the accusations several times on national TV even after the story was proven false. Trump then repeated it during the debate adding to the falsehoods by claiming that Haitians were eating dogs as well. Local police denied all of the accusations.
Haitians were drawn to live in Springfield not only to escape political violence in their country but also due to the low cost of living and high demand for work. Haiti has been in crisis for years with growing famine, gang violence, and deteriorating material conditions. This is all the culmination of US destabilization and intervention from Clinton’s failed “Operation Uphold Democracy” to the use of US Aid in Haiti to fill the pockets of for-profit American organizations. A Jacobin article wrote, “Getting money into local hands is not just effective in terms of responding to the needs on the ground — because the people on the ground know what they need — but it also stimulates the local economy. If you bypass and undermine local organizations, that’s going to have long-term impacts.” And we are seeing those long-term impacts today, especially after their former president’s corruption and subsequent assassination, Haiti is in a dire state.
Over the past few years, the town of Springfield has seen 20,000 Haitians migrate to the area. The city’s population had been declining and industries had fled from the area, leaving the town desolate. This immigration could very well help to build back the town’s economy but some of the residents are having trouble accepting the change.
Springfield residents have complained about rent increases, strains on local schools and hospitals, and dangerous drivers. One of the stories that has been continuously invoked by politicians like JD Vance is the death of a young boy. He was killed in a car accident when a Haitian immigrant collided with a school bus. The father, Nathan Clark, has spoken out on the weaponization of his son’s death, “I wish my son was killed by a 60-year-old white man. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone.” He then added, “Politicians – Bernie Moreno, Chip Roy, JD Vance, and Donald Trump – they have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now.’
When JD Vance was confronted on CNN, he ended up revealing he made up the stories about Haitian immigrants in order to help his constituents. But JD forgets he is the sitting Senator in the state of Ohio. Where was he when rent prices were skyrocketing and the economy was tanking? Spreading lies about people who are now a part of his constituency just as much as the residents who were previously there doesn’t help fix their material conditions. In fact, it’s only brought violence to them.
The situation escalated from cat memes on TikTok and remixes of Donald Trump’s comments to a very real, uncontrollable situation. Governor Mike DeWine had to call in the state troopers to guard schools after the city received 30 bomb threats. The white supremacist group, The Proud Boys, also marched through the city, sparking fear among everyone. The woman who originally posted the false story recently retracted her account and initial statement writing, “It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen.” It illustrates that white supremacist rhetoric doesn’t just affect brown and black people but everyone involved.
How Does This Affect SCAD Students?
SCAD is home to a 20% international student body which when compared to the national average of 5.6% according to Forbes is quite an astonishing statistic. We also have an incredibly diverse group of students who share wide-ranging backgrounds, ethnicities, and orientations. We just so happen to reside in the most liberal part of Georgia but that does not mean Atlanta is a stranger to hatred. I wanted to sit down with SCAD students who are from these targeted communities to understand their thoughts on the anti-immigrant sentiment growing in America.
I talked to advertising student, Gabby, who is of Haitian descent, and SCAN’s very own art director, Elisa Boulton, to get their perspective on the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The residents at The Edge Apartments in Aurora and the Haitian residents in Springfield have received verbal threats and bomb threats due to the hysteria. Does the rhetoric around immigration increase your personal fears around safety or social acceptability?
Gabby: Personally for me, no because I’m blessed to say I’ve grown up in places – and even moving to America while all of this is going on, I’m not in fear or anything because Atlanta and Miami where I was growing up – it’s just full of immigrants and very diverse. People here tend to be more open-minded – over there they know it’s not true. So personally, I do not feel a difference in my safety but if I were living in a more rural city, I definitely would have.
Elisa: Honestly where I live right now, not really. But you never know who you might come across who isn’t too happy with people who aren’t “American” living nearby or sharing the same spaces. Personally, I’ve been fortunate enough not to experience major fears or social rejection in the U.S. But I’m well aware that many immigrants deal with this daily, which is really sad and frustrating.
Do you feel politicians have done enough to counter the falsehoods around both Aurora and Springfield?
Gabby: I don’t really think politicians have done anything. I mean personally – it’s not like I’m tuned into politics daily but like the fact that I heard what was being said in politics about everything going on in Springfield means that I should’ve easily had access to if anyone was countering those claims. And I see people doing their best effort to do that but nobody in politics – nobody that actually has power and influence.
Elisa: I haven’t really seen much effort from politicians to counter the misinformation, at least not from any sources I follow. There’s been a lot of joking around about it, which feels like a very Gen Z response, but not much in the way of serious statements or information from public figures. Misinformation like this is really harmful to immigrant communities and needs to be addressed quickly before it leads to more fear and hatred towards people just trying to live their lives.
Why do you think people are so quick to spread misinformation, especially surrounding immigrants?
Elisa: Unfortunately, there are bad people everywhere in every country, city, and community. But what I’ve noticed is when one immigrant out of millions does something wrong or out of the norm, it gets blown out of proportion, and people start generalizing. It’s human nature to group things together but it’s sad that this only seems to happen with bad stuff. Positive stories about immigrants don’t spread as quickly, but when there’s something negative, people are quick to share it, and that’s what tends to stick.
Gabby: I think because it’s been done in the past – in America, immigrants especially aren’t taken as seriously and no one has ever come to their defense. Even in their countries like with all the political warfare in Haiti too, I know that there’s a lot that has to do with America. If America is not over there helping them with all of the chaos and everything, I definitely do not think that they’ll be defending or protecting their name at all.
But it’s very easy to spread because no one really cares and they’re just like “Oh, they’re immigrants. If all else fails, they have a country to go back to” which in many cases I know that’s not actually the case.
This negative attitude towards immigration is not just seen in America but also across Western Europe. What steps do you think we need to take in order to change our policies and attitudes surrounding immigration?
Gabby: I don’t think there’s much we can do in policies, personally. It’s more so like you said an attitude thing, and that is just going to – honestly, I don’t think it will change only because if you look at racism in America, it’s been going on for so long. We’ve had policies to stop like racist acts but at the end of the day, racism still exists all across Western Europe and all across America. So it’s really just a change of heart thing and I think that takes generations at a time. It’s just about spreading awareness and being open-minded but that’s more personal.
Elisa: I’ve traveled around Europe, and it’s clear that mass immigration is a global issue. People aren’t immigrating to “invade” other countries or steal jobs – they’re often just trying to escape difficult, dangerous, or unsustainable situations in their home countries. Larger, more stable countries need to have more empathy for this. Most immigrants just want a better life for themselves and their families, to improve their future, and their education, or simply to survive.
As a Venezuelan, I’ve seen millions of people leave my country in search of opportunities, and I meet Venezuelans everywhere. I’ve been lucky to immigrate to the U.S. and live comfortably, but many others can’t, whether because of policies, financial barriers, or lack of resources. At the same time, as immigrants, we need to remember that when we move to a new country, we should respect its laws and culture. That doesn’t mean we can’t express our own culture, but we do need to adapt and appreciate the opportunity we’ve been given.
But this has to go both ways. We need the rest of society to help us move forward too. It’s hard to contribute and be part of a new country when we’re constantly fighting stereotypes or misinformation. We’re not trying to change your country, just be a part of it and contribute.
As the “progressive” alternative, Democrats should be pushing back against their counterparts’ narratives. They should know these numbers and statistics about fentanyl or that immigrants commit significantly less crime than natural-born citizens. When Fox News anchors reguratate the same murder case, Democrats should bring up that on average undocumented immigrants are only involved in an average of 60 murder cases yearly compared to the national average of 20,000 (US Customs & Border Control). There are no party advocates for comprehensive reform or a pathway for citizenship. Instead, we are just all left to steep in our hysteria.
