John Oliver, host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, has condemned the Republican party's focus on so-called 'migrant crime' as 'relentless, bad-faith fearmongering'. In an episode filmed before Joe Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, Oliver examined the rhetoric employed at the recent Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee.
Oliver noted that despite speculation Donald Trump would adopt a 'muted' tone following an assassination attempt, the RNC was 'in no way toned down'. Trump's 90-minute speech quickly abandoned any 'message of unity' to return to familiar attacks on 'crazy Nancy Pelosi', the 'China virus', and the 2020 election. Central to the convention was the theme of an 'invasion' of undocumented immigrants.
Oliver highlighted that while immigration is the second most important issue for Americans according to recent polling, this is partly due to Republican fearmongering. He pointed to the 'toxic phrase migrant crime', popularised by Trump and Fox News, despite there being no evidence of a migrant crime wave. Crime overall has been trending downward, and Texas data shows illegal immigrants have a conviction rate 45% below native-born Americans.
Oliver criticised Republicans for relying on anecdotes and exaggeration, such as a website linking fentanyl deaths to migrant crime, despite 90% of fentanyl seizures at the border occurring during legal crossings and 91% of those seizures involving US citizens. He warned that such rhetoric is 'racist' and has been effective: over 70% of Republicans now believe the false claim that migrants are likely to commit crimes.
'Migrant crime is not on the rise. That is a fact,' Oliver said. 'But people now feel as though it is, and that feeling has the potential to cause massive harm.' He argued that this distracts from genuine immigration issues, such as court backlogs and providing care for vulnerable migrants.
