Republicans Vapidly Blame Immigration For Domestic Terror Attacks
Just days after broad xenophobia was exposed in the online debate about H-1B visas, the purveyors of that animus revealed themselves again
What appears to be a “terrorist” attack in the early morning hours of New Year's Day that killed 15 and injured dozens turned into yet another feeding ground for racism-based misinformation from the far-right. As we have seen after mass shootings and other domestic terrorist attacks, lies spread fast about the suspects because those portrayals benefit from exploiting inherent biases and ignorance found in a growing segment of the United States.
Hours after the tragedy, many took to social media to influence the conversation. It wasn’t long before Fox News began promoting a story that the alleged attacker crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Eagle Pass, Texas two days before the attack. This framing does not appear to be accidental. The choice of location and false narrative pulls on the same fear-laden string they’ve been yanking on for several years. Far-right extremists then spread the lie like wildfire.
Immediately, media outlets worldwide began reporting that this was unconfirmed despite Fox News claiming they received this information from sources within federal law enforcement. Their sourcing appears dubious as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) immediately debunked this narrative. Fox News later retracted its story and clarified that the rental truck the attacker used crossed the border in mid-November. The attacker never did.
That did not matter to the far-right social media cesspool.
The FBI later identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran from Texas. The agency later said that it is working to determine Jabbar’s possible affiliation with terrorist groups. However, this also didn’t matter to Trump’s acolytes who left their social media posts up after the FBI, credible news outlets, and Fox News clarified that Jabbar was not an immigrant and that the truck didn’t cross the border two days prior.
President-elect Donald Trump jumped on the opportunity as well. Trump took the chance to promote more Latinophobia following in the footsteps of what his campaign promoted during the most recent election. He wasted no time posting something on Truth Social using wording that sounded more like Stephen Miller that focused on the widely debunked immigrant crime wave as he promoted his administration’s largely anti-Latino animus.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wasted no time using the narrative to stoke Islamophobia. She immediately began to suggest that Arab or Muslim terrorists came across the border to conduct a terrorist attack. It’s a narrative that the far-right has embraced ever since FBI Director Chris Wray suggested under oath several months ago – without evidence – that Muslim extremists were crossing the border thus, helping promote another false far-right narrative.
Despite Jabbar being a U.S. citizen, the far-right’s absurd claims on social media about him being an immigrant are not something they’re willingly backing away from and are now shifting the conversation to immigration. Even after his military record was discussed, for the far-right, the conversation is less about a domestic “terrorist” like Jabbar and more about Latino immigrants thanks in large part to widespread propaganda.
Trump's chosen policy director Stephen Miller kept pushing the xenophobic rhetoric despite the media and federal authorities clarifying that Jabbar was born in Texas. Miller, known for his racism and bigotry, has promoted the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory (along with many other lawmakers) that suggests there is a concerted effort to make white people extinct. The theory is premised on the idea that prominent Jewish people are paying migrants to come to the U.S. and expedited the so-called browning of America.
Miller's Latinophobic sentiments have also been highlighted recently amid the H-1B visa debate involving mostly workers from India with specific skill sets in the medical and tech fields. Trump’s comments about the issue spotlighted Miller’s appeasement of bringing in more “highly-skilled” workers from India. As Trump’s policy director, the president-elect made Miller's stance much more obvious to those who haven't noticed its Latinophobic nature yet.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson continued his Latinophobia in a rant on Fox News on January 2, more than 24 hours after the country learned the attacker who drove the truck into the crowds on Bourbon Street was a U.S.-born military veteran. His argument suggests terrorist networks are being allowed in Latin America and that terrorists are being permitted to travel through those countries to cross into the U.S. He also decried the growing threats from hate groups and white nationalist groups as “nonsense”.
Johnson, like so many other high-ranking government officials, made claims about “terrorists” crossing the border without evidence like it’s no big deal.
Republicans do all of this as if they expect us to ignore that two former soldiers committed acts of terror on the same day, that a U.S.-born citizen was found to have over 150 homemade pipe bombs during his arrest on a firearms charge, and that federal agents from the FBI shot and killed a white man two days before his call for an unorganized militia to “take action” was to occur.
The man who was killed on Dec. 13 was convinced he was “a victim of an unknown domestic terrorist group that defamed his name, harmed his tire business in Ohio, and infected him with a sexually transmitted disease.” As it turns out, there was no militia.
As crazy as all of this is, in addition to the myriad cases not mentioned here, conservatives refuse to focus on the threat of domestic terrorism even as it unfolds in front of us. Instead, they equate the group that commits far fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens with these acts — as if immigrants regularly do such things. The biggest threat to the United States has been and still is far-right extremists and hate groups who threaten the lives of people all over the country.
Listening to all the hyperbolic language from Republicans often directed at non-white groups, non-cis-gendered groups, and women, it's safe to say that white supremacy is a feature of the party and not a bug. The party's platform is unapologetically rife with implied and unfounded claims about Latin American and Caribbean Island immigrants, Black people, trans people, women, and anything or anyone that isn't a straight white male.
Their supporters are so blinded by their superiority complexes that they fail to see the damage they're doing to themselves. For many, that damage is the price they're willing to pay to maintain the white power structure that they believe benefits them. Meanwhile, wealthy elites are also ruining poor and middle-class white people’s lives more than they ever imagined and convincing them that it's Black, Brown, and trans people that are harming the country.
Some things never change.
I’m a freelance journalist. Find my work at Latino Rebels, Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp
"The biggest threat to the United States has been and still is far-right extremists and hate groups who threaten the lives of people all over the country."
And white man specifically, it's coming directly from the FBI too ...
Interestingly enough, one of the first piece of legislation that will come out of the Trump administration seems to be about Trans people ... 😔