Trump’s unchallenged immigration falsehoods leave advocates frustrated and fearful
Immigration advocates expressed disappointment that former president Donald Trump vilified migrants and repeated immigration lies and misinformation with little to no pushback from President Joe Biden, worrying some over what comes next.
Former President Donald Trump dominated the immigration portion of the presidential debate Thursday night, repeating lies and false narratives with little to no pushback from President Joe Biden, who seemed unprepared to refute much of the predictable immigration misinformation his opponent was peddling.
For Jeffrey Thielman, who leads the International Institute of New England, an organization helping refugees and immigrants with resettlement needs, the debate was peppered with moments in which Biden “was not able to articulate very clearly what he was thinking.”
“That’s a concern,” Thielman said, adding that his organization has been bracing for the prospect of a second Trump term. He described it as “frightening” because the organization anticipates it may lose a third of its federal funding if Trump wins.
His worry echoed that of a dozen Latino and immigrant rights organizations that spoke to NBC News. They expressed disappointment over a debate that deviated from any meaningful solutions and sparked fear over the future of immigration policy.
Biden missed an important opportunity to fact-check his opponent and provide appropriate context to the immigration issue, and to steer it away from the “dehumanizing rhetoric that falsely depicts immigrants as inherent threats,” 16 Latino advocacy organizations, including America’s Voice, Alianza for Progress, Latino Victory and Voto Latino, said in a joint statement Friday.
Rating: 5