Latino activists and political leaders worry that increasingly harsh and racist rhetoric about migrants, particularly by Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters, is fueling a surge in the already record-breaking number of hate crimes against Latinos, Axios reports. The concerns are rising amid political campaigns targeting immigrants, a stalemate in Congress over plans to improve border security, and a projected backlog of 8 million asylum seekers and other migrants seeking to stay in the U.S. The increased tension over undocumented migrants has included racist remarks from Christian pastors and concerns about violence by far-right groups. Anti-Latino hate crimes hit record highs in 2022, the most recent year for which national stats are available, as the ongoing migrant crisis grew and there was growing acceptance of the once-fringe "white replacement theory" pushed by far-right media outlets.
Trump repeatedly has said undocumented immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." Last month, he said he'd use local police to carry out mass deportations of migrants if he's elected. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung doubled down on the former president's focus on limiting migration. "President Trump has highlighted the scourge of illegal immigration under Democrat rule and how [President] Biden's migrant crime has infected our communities with rampant crime and destruction," Cheung said. An Axios review of data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that since 2016 hate crimes against Latinos spiked during various news events involving them or after comments made by Trump. For example, anti-Latino hate crimes skyrocketed by more than 50% in July 2018 from the previous month, at the height of the Trump administration's family separation policy at the border. "We've seen a correlation between brazen, anti-Latino immigrant rhetoric and anti-Latino hate crimes in recent years," said Brian Levin, retired director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.