Republicans Say They Want to Tone Down Political Rhetoric — But They Keep Calling Immigration an ‘Invasion’

“We have to be nice until they begin the deportations,” said former Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Ted Cruz speaks during the 2024 RNC.

Sen. Ted Cruz referred to border crossings as “a literal invasion” during the Republican National Convention. Paul Sancya/AP

Republicans have said Democrats must stop demonizing Donald Trump in the wake of an assassination attempt last weekend. But at the Republican National Convention, speakers repeatedly demonized immigrants with language that’s been echoed by perpetrators of violence.

Trump and several other RNC speakers referred to unauthorized immigration as an “invasion” — “not figuratively, a literal invasion,” said Sen. Ted Cruz during a speech on Tuesday — a term also used by the man who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.

“The way that Republicans are talking about immigration and immigrants is not just vile and un-American, but it is dangerous,” Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, told NOTUS. “They’ve really been accelerating the messaging that immigrants are criminals, immigrants should be feared and immigrants should be hated.”