MILWAUKEE – Among the sea of campaign signs waved this week at the Republican National Convention are some that read “Stop Biden’s Border Bloodbath.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed without evidence during his primetime Tuesday speech that “every day, Americans are dying — murdered, assaulted, raped — by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released.”
Tying immigrants to violent crime has been a theme of former President Donald Trump’s political career. Immigration is among the top issues for voters this election; it was the No. 2 issue for Republicans in a June poll from PBS News/NPR/Marist, second to inflation.
Among some Republican delegates at the national convention, safety, border security and pathways to citizenship were top-of-mind.
“These are not bad people. We’re not saying they’re bad people,” Chris Slinker, a Wisconsin delegate, told PBS News this week. “We want to give them a chance to come in. But can we do it right? Can we also give them a real chance instead of them sneaking in and then feeling left alone or left helpless?”
Texas delegate Jaci Lopez said her husband, a long-haul truck driver, frequently travels to the southern border city of Laredo and often sees semi-trucks pulled over with immigrants loaded into the trailers.
“They’re stuck in a hot box with no ventilation, no water, no bathroom, no food, no airflow at all whatsoever. And that’s a problem, that’s a big problem,” Lopez said. “The people that are trying to cross because they are looking for a better life are suffering. They’re being sold a bag of lies. It’s not right. It’s inhumane.”
Lawmakers in Washington have for years failed to pass major immigration reform, including a major bipartisan bill that was blocked in the Senate earlier this year. President Joe Biden unveiled a policy last month to allow some immigrants who lack legal status, yet are married to American citizens, a pathway to citizenship.
For Florida delegate Cindy Spray, speeding up a pathway to citizenship is key.
“If we have somebody here that’s been here for a number of years, have contributed to our society, have worked and have never committed a crime and have been, basically, a citizen,” she said, “I could see that they need that pathway to citizenship a little faster than those who just came across the border.”
An increasing number of Americans believe there’s a “major risk” that people who come here illegally will commit crimes, according to an AP-NORC poll from March, despite little evidence that this group commits crimes at a higher rate than those born in the U.S.
For Georgia delegate Debbie McCord, the issue has hit home. In February of this year, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was killed while on a morning run on the campus of the University of Georgia. McCord said it shocked her community. Authorities arrested and charged a 26-year-old man from Venezuela, Jose Antonio Ibarra, for Riley’s killing. Ibarra was previously arrested in September 2022 for illegal entry and released to pursue his case in immigration court. Since then, Republicans have frequently invoked the case in calls for stricter border security.
“I’ve had kids in college. You never want to feel like your child can’t go out for a run or a walk and not be safe,” McCord said.
Forty-one percent of Americans in a February poll from PBS News/Marist/NPR said Republicans were better at handling immigration than Democrats. In a June poll, more than half responded that Trump would be better at handling immigration than Biden.
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