Migrants crossing border

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Right-wing media continue abhorrent racism and xenophobia as they try to push baseless “migrant crime" wave narrative

Right-wing media figures have accused migrants of coming to “rape and pillage and murder” Americans, called them “Third World animals,” claimed they're here to replace white people, and even suggested responding with violence

Written by Chloe Simon & Noah Dowe

Published

Right-wing media’s fixation with an alleged “migrant crime" wave has continued in 2024, even while violent crime and border crossings decline. In trying to make migrant crime a key election issue — the second day of the Republican National Convention was focused on crime and immigration — conservative outlets and media figures have significantly escalated their vile and dehumanizing coverage of immigration, claiming migrants are “Third World animals” incapable of building civilization, echoing tenets of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, and even promoting violence against people crossing the border. 

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  • Right-wing media have continually lied about a “migrant crime" wave in 2024

    • Despite a decline in both violent crime and border crossings in 2024, Fox News has continually fixated on an alleged “migrant crime” wave, running nearly 1,000 weekday segments on the topic from January 1 through July 12. The network’s hosts, contributors, and guests have frequently pushed dangerous narratives labeling migrants as potential terrorists and invaders who are enabling criminal activity. [Media Matters, 2/29/24, 6/25/24, 7/16/24]
    • Multiple studies have found that there is no correlation between undocumented people and higher crime rates, and the rate of migrant crime is far less than that of U.S.-born citizens. According to the Brennan Center, “Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite. Studies have also examined the impact of the concentration of immigrants in a community on crime patterns, finding that immigration is associated with lower crime rates and an increase in structural factors — such as social connection and economic opportunity — that are linked to neighborhood safety.” NPR reports that Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky also found that “since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.” [NPR, 3/8/24; Brennan Center, 5/29/24]

  • Right-wing media have painted migrants as criminals, claiming they are “killers,” “invaders,” “serial sexual predators,” and “Third World animals”

    • On former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Infowars host Alex Jones said migrants are “here to destroy the country.” Jones proposed mass deportations, suggesting the military “round up the criminals first, and then you start going to the work sites and all the other places … and you grab them and you throw them in the back of a truck and you ship their ass out of here.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 3/13/24] 
    • Fox News host Jesse Watters called migrants “serial sexual predators,” “serial killers,” and “Third World animals,” comparing migration to a terror attack. Watters said Biden is “catching and releasing killers and rapists, they’re pouring into the country,” and said they are “serial sexual predators, they’re serial killers, and they don't belong here. These are Third World animals.” Watters also compared migration to a “terror attack,” claiming, “Biden migrants are exploding all inside our country like IEDs.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/21/24]
    • Trump ally Laura Loomer said migrants are “invaders” who “just disappear … only to be seen again when their faces are plastered on the news after they commit heinous crimes like murder, rape, human trafficking, assault, and drug dealing.” Loomer also suggested that Democrats embrace immigration because they want “white America” to be “punished by being replaced.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 6/7/24; NBC News, 1/14/24]
    • Reacting to a migrant accused of murder, Fox News contributor Paul Mauro proclaimed that “this has now morphed into biowarfare. These guys are smart weapons, they are bioweapons deployed against America.” In a later Fox appearance, Mauro again called migrants “bioweapons” and suggested immigration is a “form of terrorism.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/25/24; The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/26/24]
    • Newsmax host Chris Plante ranted that Biden is letting in an “unfathomable number” of “entirely unvetted, most likely unvaccinated, unruly military-aged men, possibly criminals, gang members, disease-ridden, drug-smuggling, battle-tested, honestly, welfare-loving, illegal aliens storming across our southern border” who are “killing innocent Americans all over the place.” [Newsmax, Prime News, 6/19/24] 
    • Newsmax host John Bachman later repeated almost the exact same script, adding, “Americans in every state are being impacted daily by the unfathomable number of illegals in this country.” Bachman claimed that there are “millions of unvetted, most likely unvaxxed … unruly military-aged males, possibly criminals, some disease-ridden, drug smugglers, battle-tested, welfare-loving liberals storming across our border.” [Newsmax, Prime News, 6/24/24] 
    • Citing “a steady stream of foreign invaders and their American victims,” Fox host Greg Gutfeld suggested viewers should “vote like your life depends on it, maybe because it does.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 6/26/24] 
    • Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed on Fox that migrants are “above the law” and “being dumped into this country by the millions as they rape and pillage and murder.” Miller continued, “Joe Biden’s flying them in day after day, busing them in, escorting them in to rape and pillage and murder more Americans.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/21/24]
    • Tomi Lahren of Fox’s OutKick said that men from “Venezuelan gangs or from illegal immigrants, migrants, newcomers, whatever you want to call them” are “preying on young women” in the U.S. and targeting them because they are “the most vulnerable among us.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 6/21/24]
    • Right-wing radio host Todd Starnes warned migrants could stage an “October 7-style attack” in “smaller communities that may not have those resources.” A chyron underneath read “Illegal Immigration Is Poisoning American Society.” [Newsmax, Prime News, 6/17/24]
    • Fox News contributor Leo Terrell claimed that the Biden administration is “importing criminals.” Terrell said, “Every policy that Trump had in place was working, but this open border policy has basically allowed American women and men to be subject to criminal attacks by illegal aliens.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/3/24]
    • After reading a number of headlines involving migrants accused of crimes, Fox anchor Julie Banderas said that “something is wrong with you” if “it does not make your skin crawl and make you physically ill.” While introducing Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL), Banderas said: “If you just heard me report all those cases of illegal immigrants that are in this country because of this White House, quite frankly, because of our open borders, and it does not make your skin crawl and make you physically ill, then something is wrong with you.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 7/3/24]
    • On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity declared he was “100% certain that another 9/11 is on the way” because of the Biden administration’s “open borders policies.” Hannity continued, “Nothing would make me happier to be wrong, but I don't believe I am. I'm pretty much 100% certain I'm going to be proven right.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/25/24] 
    • Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza mentioned “the constant headlines about bloodthirsty murderers” while talking about “our broken borders.” She added, “They are raping our children. They are killing innocent people with lethal drugs and shooting police officers, leaving families permanently broken.” [Newsmax, Prime News, 7/29/24]
    • On Hannity, Miller suggested that alleged migrant terrorists were planning attacks “in your cities … in your communities … in your neighborhoods.” Miller added, “They’re plotting. They’re scheming. They’re planning.” He also claimed Democrats “just want an open border no matter how much blood is spilled as a result.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/5/24]

  • Conservative figures also echoed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, arguing immigration is part of a plot to change the nation’s demographics or import voters

    • Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk said that Democrats “won't stop until you and your children and your children's children are eliminated,” claiming, “This is why the left literally needs endless, constantly increasing migration from the Third World.” Kirk ranted, “The great replacement strategy, which is well underway every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 3/1/24]
    • Kirk later argued that there should be no more asylum claims granted because the Democratic Party “hates this country. They want to see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 3/20/24]
    • Jesse Watters said “the far left” wants an “illegal alien nation where they can blow up the welfare state and just increase their political power.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/12/24] 
    • On Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast, The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis accused Democrats of “bringing in a whole bunch of people to remake the country in their own image.” Davis also suggested that Democrats were “trying to rig another election” and waging a “two-front war on the American republic” by “trying to flood us with a bunch of people who don’t understand our culture, are not interested in assimilating, don’t care about our laws. And then they want them to actually go and vote as well to replace or to subsume the votes of citizens.” [Rumble, Triggered with Don Jr, 6/24/24]
    • Laura Loomer claimed that “to the radical left, the replacement of the American core is essential to their ideology and their communist takeover of America.” She went on to say that Biden and the radical left “view traditional America … as something which ought to be destroyed and relegated to the dustbin of history.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 6/6/24]
    • Fox News host Laura Ingraham called migrants coming into the country a “slow-rolling invasion.” Ingraham claimed, “Now, this is an attack in and of itself on American sovereignty.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/17/24]
    • Discussing a Biden administration proposal to bring Gazan refugees to America, Stephen Miller claimed that Democrats “want to turn the Midwest into the Middle East.” Miller said that “at every step, it’s find poor migrants from around the world and bring them into America in unlimited numbers.” [CBS News, 4/30/24; Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 5/10/24] 
    • On Fox, Hoover Institute senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson claimed Democrats accept “collateral damage” as part of an “agenda to let as many people into the United States as quickly as possible as their legacy.” Host Sean Hannity agreed, saying, “They're willing to sacrifice the lives of Americans.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/26/24] 
    • Hannity fearmongered about Democratic opposition to the SAVE Act, suggesting that “Democrats just imported millions of illegal immigrants” and are now “against any and all election integrity efforts” by Republicans. Hannity was promoting the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a bill pushed by House Republicans which “would require those registering to vote to provide proof of US citizenship and compel states to purge suspected non-citizens from their voter rolls.” He also warned, “In multiple states, mail-in ballots, drop boxes will once again take center stage. Early voting starts in 68 days. This is not a secure process.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/9/24; The Guardian, 7/11/24]
    • On Fox, Trump’s former acting ICE director and Project 2025 contributor Tom Homan claimed Democrats “destroyed the most secure border in my lifetime … by design” so that “millions of illegal aliens in sanctuary cities will be counted in the next census.” On Fox, Homan argued the alleged scheme “will result in more seats in the House for the Democrats, control of the government. And plus they want to be future Democratic voters. … That is their plan, and that will happen if Kamala Harris becomes president.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/29/24]
    • On Fox, Daniel Stein, the president of anti-immigration hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform, accused the Biden administration of “trying to change the demographic base of the electorate.” Stein claimed, “They are just trying to maximize the level of people they are getting into the country because they are trying to change the demographic base of the electorate. It's very simple.” [Fox News, America Reports, 8/6/24; Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 8/7/24]

  • Right-wing media have escalated other extreme rhetoric against migrants, with some even suggesting violence against them

    • Charlie Kirk advocated for violence against migrants, saying, “If you enter, we have lethal force, and we're willing to use it.” Kirk suggested that migrants were “bringing force upon themselves” by “invading” the United States and floated the idea of using tear gas or rubber bullets because “you can escalate. You don’t have to start with lethal force.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 3/21/24]
    • Jesse Watters suggested that immigration would make America a “Third World dumping ground” and hurt domestic-born workers. Watters said, “And if millions of Biden migrants are working, millions are on welfare too and it's costing us a fortune.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/4/24]
    • Discussing potential anti-migrant vigilante violence, Laura Loomer said, “I’m not going to care when it happens” because “there’s only so much people can take.” The Trump ally claimed, “I'm not inciting violence when I say that, but they're pushing people to a point of no return.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 3/8/24]
    • White nationalist Nick Fuentes attacked African immigrants as “not civilized” and “subliterate, not even illiterate,” claimed they “eat each other,” and warned “they’re going to be chasing you through the street.” Fuentes continued, “You'll pine for the days when the worst that you could expect is to get mugged or carjacked or burglarized by these American Blacks." (Fuentes seemingly misused the word subliterate, which refers to those who are still literate at a lower level.) [Rumble, America First with Nick Fuentes, 3/14/24] 
    • Newsmax’s Chris Plante said, “Illegal aliens are effectively three-fifths of a person.” Plante also fearmongered about the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, warning about “illegals from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti — where cannibalism is popular these days. You know, flying them mostly to swing states across the country.” [Newsmax, Chris Plante: The Right Squad, 5/2/24; Media Matters, 3/7/24]
    • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said “a lot” of undocumented immigrants are “whiny little babies” and “self-entitled egomaniacs.” Walsh complained, “It's insane that these people are not being rounded up and shipped back to where they came from.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 5/10/24] 
    • Walsh also claimed that “the illegal immigrants, and many of the legal ones, come from decaying, dying, dead, nonexistent civilizations without the skills to build a civilization.” Walsh also said, “They flee their own nation because they'd rather come here than do the work of making their own countries prosperous. … It’s just a factual observation.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 3/11/24]
    • BlazeTV’s Steve Deace suggested shooting the “mobs that are trying to invade your country illegally,” asking, “Isn't that kind of, like, the standard operating practice, is to defend your homeland?” Deace continued: “So again, if we're at a point now we can't — when a mob insurrection invades the country, that the idea of shooting them to stop their invasion, we all just are, like, well, you know, people lose their minds if we do that, I don't know how to share a country with that.” [BlazeTV, The Steve Deace Show, 3/25/24]
    • Fox guest T.W. Shannon said that Biden’s “open border” is “poisoning the bloodline in this country because we are allowing illegals to vote.” The former Oklahoma GOP House speaker asserted that “the real threat to democracy are the policies of Joe Biden like the open border that's destroying this country.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 4/10/24]
    • Fox Business' Charles Payne said immigrants “should be somewhere building their own nation” rather than in America. Payne’s guest, Sheriff Mark Dannels, said, “This is the tip of the criminal spear when it comes to what's going to be happening as a result of three and a half years of leaving the border open. People come into the country that don't respect our cultures, our rule of law, and the people within.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 6/21/24]
    • Watters also claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the country.” Watters claimed that Biden “has created a five-headed monster with the border. And everything’s growing from it is poisoning the country. It's poisoning women and children, it's poisoning whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, it's poisoning cities, suburbs, and the country.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/27/24]
    • Infowars host Chase Geiser complained about “shitty migrants,” calling them “bad people” with “low IQ” and accusing them of “invading to exploit, like the Vikings.” Geiser also claimed that migrants would “dilute the quality of our culture.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 7/28/24] 
    • Discussing a mass stabbing incident in Southport, England, right-wing provocateur Stew Peters launched into a bigoted rant attacking “third world animalistic savages” and suggested African migrants have a “kill switch.” Peters argued, “And now, just like here in America, in our inner cities, criminal mobs of savage marauders are just roaming the streets with impunity.” [Rumble, The Stew Peters Show, 8/1/24; The Washington Post, 8/1/24]