Remembering Charlie Kirk’s Legacy With the Latino and Immigrant Communities Through His Own Words

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot while hosting an event at Utah Valley University. His brand was controversial and offensive, often making inflammatory remarks at events, on his show, and to the media. Kirk was on his “The American Comeback” Tour, where he held his “Prove Me Wrong” debates with the audience, when he died.

Leaders from both political parties have expressed their condolences to the family and denounced the circumstances of his death. His death set off discussions across the political spectrum about his legacy. Conservatives have mourned Kirk’s death, especially within the Christian Nationalist and Evangelical circles. More liberal netizens are painting a different picture of a man who caused harm and danger with his rhetoric.

However, his legacy with the Latino community is mixed. Looking back at his statements shows a conservative firebrand eager to court the Latino vote but willing to use rhetoric against that same community. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and one of the main goals was to court the conservative Latino population.

Here is how people are remembering Charlie Kirk, using his own words.

Charlie Kirk spoke often about immigration

Kirk said a lot about immigration on his show, in interviews, and on social media. His focus wasn’t just on undocumented people in the country; he often criticized the country for legal immigration. He was a major voice in advancing “The Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.

“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,” Kirk said during an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show in 2024. He continued to say, “They hate that they don’t live in big cities. They hate those of you that live in rural and small America. They hate those of you that own land and have guns and believe in a better country, and they have a plan to try and get rid of you.”

In a later episode in the same year, he focused on Mexico and addressed the southern border.

“Mexico could close their border in an afternoon, but we’re allowing Mexico and the cartels to overrun the country because, of course, the American Democrat party wants that to happen,” he told his audience. “The American Democrat Party hates this country. They wanna see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.”

This year, on The Charlie Kirk Show, he argued that the United States was becoming a colony. He argued that immigrants were taking over and Americans were losing their country.

America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever,” Kirk said. He added, “I’m sure some of them [immigrants] are ones that I know, but we’ve got to take a step back and say, guys, that you’re no longer a nation. You’re something else. You’re a colony.”

He created space for conservative Latinos to feel accepted

During the 2022 Turning Points USA’s Youth Latino Leadership Summit, Kirk addressed the conservative Latino population.

“I think we’d all agree there’s a specific and unique Latino culture — not race, not skin color, but there are values embedded in the Latino culture that should be appreciated and understood,” Kirk told the crowd.

The values that Kirk pointed to are “hard work — reverence — faith — God — family — pro-life.”

A recent poll found that a majority of Latinos support abortions being legal in all or most cases.

He worked to give conservative Latinos a place to embrace their values. Over the last decade, Kirk has worked to make inroads with the Latino community to bring more voters to the Republican Party. He framed the argument as the Democratic Party being racist in questioning why Latinos would vote for Republicans.

“I don’t care what you look like, I care what your worldview is,” Kirk added at the summit. “The Left have become the true racists. They say — Mexicans cannot be conservatives — they say black people cannot be conservatives. That’s a racist thing to say.”

He supported the mass deportations under President Donald Trump

Not only did he support the mass deportations on “The Charlie Kirk Show,’ he was also celebrating the enforcement in media interviews. He first claimed that some undocumented immigrants might not be as oppressed as they want people to believe. His rationale is that people were self-deporting due to the Trump administration’s widespread enforcement. A major point of pride for Kirk in the Trump administration are the “psychological deterrents” the policies created.

“President Trump and his entire team, they deserve a lot of credit for creating psychological deterrents by creating an environment where people are a little bit uncertain what is going to happen if they come here illegally,” Kirk told Fox News. “Are they gonna end up at Alligator Alcatraz? Are they gonna end up at the Louisiana Lockup? Or are they going to not be allowed entry into the United States of America?”

Kirk’s death set off a flurry of reactions on social media across the political spectrum. There were calls for war against the Democrats, and people ran with an unfounded and debunked accusation that the shooter was trans. We now know that the shooter is a cis white male.