‘Every town will be transformed into a third-world hellhole’: Donald Trump’s lies about immigration hope to scare Republicans into voting out of hatred

Donald Trump knows he’s losing, and he’s scared. So he’s doing what he does best and pivoting hard into escalated fear-mongering.

In Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on Saturday, Trump slammed Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming she — along with the Biden administration — were welcoming “criminals” into the country and that “every town will be transformed into a third-world hellhole.” He even went so far as to say that without deportations, the United States would lose its culture.

Take a moment to let that sink in. America, famously a melting pot and destination of immigrants for centuries, in danger of losing its culture…to immigrants. It is the same tired argument Republicans make year after year. The “culture” they’re trying to protect would not exist if the United States had immigrants. I am the child of immigrated great-grandparents on both sides. Immigration is our culture. It’s something that Trump and his base seem to refuse to understand. Or perhaps they’re just so blinding by a hatred (see: fear) of the Other that they don’t care to even try.

Trump isn’t even right, that’s the best part. The data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Trump and his supporters cite is aggregated from the last forty years.

“The data goes back decades,” DHS spokesperson Luis Miranda said in a statement to CBS News. “[I]t includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration.”

Trump already has a history of spreading lies

Let’s also not forget the infamous talking point of the Presidential debate: The oft-cited conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. While a completely outlandish idea for most people, Trump knew (whether he himself believed it or not) that his base would latch onto it and run with it. They don’t want to see people who don’t look like them.

In the same rant that he stated that Harris was welcoming in criminals, he also called her “mentally disabled.” Though lowbrow shots are pretty much Trump’s m.o. at this point, his recent comments seem to be devoid of anything other than hate. As the Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika put it when asked, “Trump has “nothing ‘inspiring’ to offer the American people, just darkness.”

Chitika is absolutely correct. Even though Trump’s platform has always been rooted in hate, things have only gotten worse in the recent years, and especially during this campaign cycle. The division is stronger than ever, and unfortunately there are people who would rather focus on that darkness and lies.

Let’s also not forget that Trump himself is a convicted felon. Pot, meet kettle!