By Suzanne Gamboa —NBC News
Five years after the racially motivated shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 people, the incendiary rhetoric that motivated the killer has not only worsened in the United States, anti-hate group leaders warn, but has also become normalized.
Families of those killed, and 22 others injured in the shooting, marked the anniversary of the massacre on Saturday.
Before the shooting, the shooter posted a rant online saying it was his response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and the replacement of white people by immigrants, echoing the “great replacement” conspiracy theory promoted by white supremacists.
[Controversia en el juicio por el tiroteo contra latinos en el Walmart de El Paso]
After the shooting, the man told authorities he drove 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) to attack Mexicans.
A tribute to the victims of the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.Mario Tama/Getty Images
Paul Jamrowski, father of Jordan Anchondo, who along with her husband, Andre Anchondo, lost their lives protecting their two-month-old son, said he will spend the day “remembering them, the people they were.”
But because of a gag order in the state case against the shooter, Jarowski said he could not discuss the man’s motivations. The shooter was sentenced last year to 90 consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to federal charges that included hate crimes. He still faces state prosecution.
A rhetoric with consequences
On the fifth anniversary of the massacre, leaders of several civil rights organizations, including Human Rights First, Border Network for Human Rights, the Jewish Public Affairs Council and America’s Voice, raised concerns at a news conference about language used before the shooting by then-President Donald Trump, who described the border as being “invaded,” promoting the idea that the nation is under attack. Language that has now been amplified.
[Trump tergiversa cifras sobre la violencia en Venezuela para afirmar falsamente que el país envía criminales a EE.UU.]
At the Republican National Convention, delegates carried signs each night that read “mass deportation now.” Former President Trump continues to claim there is a border “invasion” and has repeated a line similar to one used by Adolf Hitler, declaring that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
The Republican Party platform has called for “sealing the border and stopping the invasion of immigrants.” This is the first of the 20 points listed by the Party.
Since the racist massacre in El Paso, Trump has been joined by others, mostly Republicans, using the same language, said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a civil rights group.
“We’re seeing more talk of invasion than we did back then. And there’s definitely a lot more anti-immigration talk coming from Trump himself,” Saenz added.
On Wednesday, Trump told the National Association of Black Journalists conference that people crossing the southern U.S. border would take “black jobs.”
[‘El gran reemplazo’: la teoría racista detrás del tiroteo de Buffalo]
“… they are taking away black jobs. They are coming in and they are coming in, they are invading,” the former president said.
NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo, contacted the Trump campaign.
In response to the El Paso mass shooting, MALDEF created a new program to expand its litigation and advocacy work to include anti-Latino hate crimes and discriminatory policing policies.
The advance of ‘invasion’ rhetoric
The man who shot and killed 10 people in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022, targeting Black people, had also posted a tirade citing the “great replacement theory.”
America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group, has been tracking what it calls the normalization of the idea of an invasion and the grand replacement rhetoric by members of Congress.
In the five years since the mass shooting in El Paso, 165 members of the current Congress have amplified replacement theory and invasion rhetoric, said Zachary Mueller, senior research director for America’s Voice, citing a report by the group.
In addition, in the first seven months of this year, members of Congress pushed the invasion and great replacement theory more than 650 times on social media accounts and introduced 11 bills using invasion rhetoric. They have used this language in 302 adsspending 30 million dollars in the first six months of this year, compared with 61 ads in all of 2022 with total spending of $5.5 million, according to Mueller.
The expert noted that the FBI reported this week that a social media account with anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant posts could be linked to the shooter who tried to assassinate Trump.
“Five years later [de la masacre en El Paso]“The conspiracy theory that gave rise to hate attacks continues to threaten our public safety and American democracy. It must be urgently condemned,” Mueller added.
Trump and Republicans have highlighted increases in border arrivals and immigration issues under Democratic President Joe Biden as central to the 2024 election.
Polls have shown increases in support for stricter border policies among voters, including Hispanics, as more communities have had to house and respond to the arrival of migrants. Some communities have had to deal with migrants on the streets when shelters were overcrowded or resources were exhausted.
But MALDEF’s Saenz said that “rational people recognize that legitimate immigration policy must be separated from dangerous rhetoric that demonizes [a los migrantes]”.
“There is a responsible way to advocate for change in border policy that does not include demonizing people who are immigrants,” he added.
As long as that kind of language continues to be used, Saenz said, he and others worry.
“The use of invasion rhetoric should be seen as a national problem. Many states see it as a problem elsewhere, not here,” he said. “As we saw with the Walmart killings, it traveled a long distance.”
