It is no surprise to anyone that, during an election year, immigrants are currency and fodder for political speeches. However, the Republican wing continues to surprise us with their anti-immigrant creativity.

All polls seem to indicate that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee — rain, shine, or a hundred more lawsuits against him. Meanwhile, the Republican Party in states like Arizona and Georgia is using the momentum to capitalize on the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

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These are just a few of the bills that have advanced in recent weeks:

Republican lawmakers in Arizona have introduced HB 2843, which would justify using force “in defense of premises.” In a masterful misrepresentation of legal language, the bill would make it legal to kill people who cross any property to illegally enter the United States.

While the bill makes no mention of immigration, its sponsor, Republican Rep. Justin Heap, told a committee hearing that his bill would close a loophole. It would help ranchers who may witness someone trespassing on any section of their land, not just within a mile of their home, NBC News reported.

The proposal would modify the so-called Castle Doctrine that is in place. Today in Arizona, landowners can use deadly force in self-defense but not in cases of trespassing.

Similarly, the proposal comes at a time when Arizona rancher George Kelly is facing trial on second-degree murder charges. Kelly was indicted for the January 2023 shooting death of Gabriel Cuen-Butimea. Cuen-Butimea was an immigrant who had entered across the border and was found dead on Kelly’s property. He has pleaded not guilty and argued that he fired only warning shots. 

As Phoenix Democratic Representative Analise Ortiz rightly said, the new law would declare “open season on migrants.”

The Georgia House of Representatives wants to allow the detention of anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant

On the other hand, in Georgia, the House of Representatives voted 97-74 to pass House Bill 1105. This bill would allow police to detain with probable cause anyone suspected of being in the United States illegally and hold them for deportation.

As explained by The Hill, the bill comes in the wake of the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia. The suspect in her death is José Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen who, according to authorities, entered the United States illegally in 2022.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Ibarra and released him for further processing. He was later arrested in New York and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child. However, he was released before ICE could ask local authorities to take him into custody, The Associated Press reported.

The bill, passed Thursday, would require jailers and sheriffs to inform federal authorities when someone in their custody lacked legal documentation. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, local governments could lose state funding or state-administered federal funds if they fail to report it.

Meanwhile, Trump promises ‘mass deportations’ and ‘concentration camps’ for immigrants

If these legislative proposals didn’t seem draconian enough, Donald Trump is promising the Republican wing and his voters that, if elected, he will implement a plan for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

As he said in an interview on Fox News last week, Trump promised to launch the “largest deportation operation in the history of the United States.”

“We have to deport a lot of people, and they have to start immediately,” Trump said during his interview in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

Trump said he would give “immunity” to police “to give the job they have to do.” He said the officers understand who the migrants are.

“It’s going to be the local police who are going to turn them over. And we’re going to have to move them back to their country,” he added.

Trump’s statements came as he visited the border and coincided with Joe Biden in the area. The current president called on his opponent to “join him” in working to pass the “toughest immigration law in decades.” But Trump said Biden has the “blood of countless innocent victims” on his hands as he claimed the U.S. was being “overrun by the Biden migrant crime.”

However, studies have shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than other U.S. residents. 

What really happens is that come election year, immigrants become scapegoats to harvest votes left and right. Meanwhile, it is precisely this demographic group that sustains the economy of a country crumbling in the ashes of its own morality.

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