In the lead-up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration, conservative media spent weeks fearmongering about his immigration policies, arguing that he would allow in an immense number of new immigrants who would overwhelm the United States -- a familiar line of attack used by the right to demonize both elected Democrats and immigrants.
Days before he was sworn in as president, Biden unveiled ambitious plans for an “overhaul of immigration laws” on his first day in office, including creating an eight-year pathway to citizenship. Qualifying immigrants would receive a temporary status for five years and then a green card once they meet certain requirements, becoming eligible to apply for citizenship three years later.
Even before Biden’s plan was officially revealed, conservative media began claiming that it would lead to a country overrun by immigrants. The right’s tactics have included warning of imminent migrant caravans (even though caravans also formed under Trump) and tracking every movement of those currently under way; using the threat of the coronavirus to bash migrants; and warning that Biden’s policies will lead to an unmanageable surge of immigrants at the border. While it is possible that immigration will rise under a more humane Biden administration policy, there’s no reason to assume -- as right-wing media suggest -- that this would have negative effects on the country.
In 2018 and 2019, right-wing media were similarly laser-focused on tracking migrant caravans and sowing fear about immigration from the south. Fox News frequently pushed nativist and anti-immigrant tropes, suggested that immigrants were bringing diseases, and referred to migration as an “invasion,” while right-wing narratives around immigration dominated on social media. In 2019, anti-immigrant rhetoric pushed regularly on Fox News and in other conservative media was echoed in the manifesto of a man who killed more than 20 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in which he warned of a “Hispanic invasion” at the border -- and several right-wing media personalities doubled down on their rhetoric afterward.
Now, conservative media are similarly devoted to whipping up fears of immigration and migrant caravans arriving at the border. After it was reported earlier this month that a migrant caravan of Hondurans had moved into Guatemala, Fox News pivoted its focus to caravan coverage. In the span of just 2 days, January 18 and 19, Fox News spent nearly 3 hours obsessively reporting and commenting on the migrant caravan. Daytime and prime-time Fox shows devoted a collective 42 segments to the caravan, totaling 2 hours and 36 minutes of content, and they teased those segments 32 times. Even as Guatemala dissolved the incoming caravan, Fox News continued to hype its supposedly disastrous potential consequences.
Here are some examples of right-wing media’s coverage regarding immigration since December 2020:
Warning of unrelenting migrant caravans
As Biden prepared to take office, conservative media were warning that his immigration policies would inspire new migrant caravans. Following reporting that a migrant caravan had formed and was moving into Guatemala, right-wing media returned to their relentless fixation on the movements of the caravan (the caravan broke up only a few days later, on January 19, after a crackdown by Guatemalan security forces).
- The Daily Caller highlighted a quote from a Honduran migrant who claimed that Biden is “going to help all of us.”
- Breitbart emphasized the same quote from the Honduran migrant.
- The Daily Wire published an article on the caravan, titled: “With Biden Set To Become President, Migrant Caravans Return, March To U.S. Southern Border.”
- The Daily Wire published a second article on the topic, claiming that “Biden’s immigration policies will spark the return of migrant caravans.”
- Fox News contributor and former acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan warned, “You’re going to see a surge at the border that we have never seen before because of the words of Joe Biden.” Homan claimed, “The criminal gangs have already figured out the transportation routes, the caravans are already loaded up and coming, and more is going to come.”