Migrant advocates 'sound the alarm,' opposing Vance as Trump's VP pick

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A day after former President Donald Trump announced the selection of Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as his vice presidential running mate, a border lawmaker and migrant advocates are criticizing the pick saying Vance opposes immigrants.

"Listen to us as we sound the alarm. The incredibly dark vision that Donald Trump and his running mate and the Republican GOP have in store for America is a throwback to very very dark days that we have seen in American history in the past and we have to stop what they are trying to attempt," U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from the West Texas border town of El Paso, said Tuesday during a call with media hosted by the nonprofit America's Voice.

Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America's Voice, says Vance has promoted conspiracy theories against immigrants in the United States and supports mass deportations.

"For years, J.D. Vance has amplified the White nationalist great replacement conspiracy theory. He has echoed sort of this notion that non-white migrants are an invading force to this country and he has also expressed that a mass deportation is what we need to do, in his mind, to fix this problem," Cardenas said.

Cardenas said Vance has falsely blamed immigrants for the opioid crisis in the United States.

America's Voice has put out a memo highlighting the organization's concerns with immigration polices aligned with the Republican party as it holds its Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Others on the call worried that family separation will be re-started under a new Trump administration.

“Fear has always been a powerful political force on the campaign trail, but only if left unchecked. We know there are winning messages and policies that counter the far right’s agenda of stoking fear over immigration and crime and reflect the will of American voters across the political spectrum,” said Insha Rahman, director of Vera Action.

"This administration isn't just planning to cut off humanitarian immigration or legal immigration in the way that it's often messaged on campaign trail but these plans will nearly cut off all legal immigration channels and that's an important message for both sides of the political aisle to absorb," said Kristie De Peña, senior vice president for policy and research and director of immigration policy at the think tank Niskanen Center.

Naureen Shah, deputy director of government affairs, equality division at the ACLUA, said the nonprofit plans to challenge in court Trump immigration policies, if he is reelected.

"We must begin mobilizing with local and state governments now to protect communities nationwide from extreme anti-immigrant policies," Shah said.

"The MAGA extremists that are my colleagues are doing everything possible to paint immigrants as criminals. They want the American public to fear and loathe immigrants. The language they use is alarming and it is the same language and rhetoric that Donald Trump used during his first term," said Escobar, who is national co-chair of President Joe Biden's reelection campaign. "The former president had the option of picking a more moderate vice president to demonstrate that there is still a willingness to work with traditional Republicans but what the former president did instead was pick someone who is full on MAGA."