The New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans by an Islamic extremist was horrific enough. More than a dozen people lost their lives and many more injured. It served as a reminder that extremists are still among us and willing to do great harm in the name of their deranged beliefs.
The perpetrator, it turns out, was an American-born convert to Islam who once served in the U.S. military.
But in the immediate response to the horrific attack, MAGA world couldn’t help but take to social media to scapegoat migrants for the terrorist actions of a full-blooded American.
“New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!” declared Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Biden’s parting gift to America — migrant terrorists,” declared Donald Trump Jr.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” declared President-elect Donald Trump.
Needless to say, they were all wrong in reacting to a terrorist act by an American-born American citizen and military veteran by attacking migrants and the immigration system.
The first problem, obviously, is that the American-born perpetrator wasn’t a migrant.
The second problem is that it reflects a counterproductive tendency by MAGA world to try and scapegoat non-Americans for American problems. In this case, they really, really wanted to be able to blame migrants and the allegedly porous border for what happened so they can be even more draconian.
We know, for one thing, that migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped over the last year to less than a quarter of what they were at their peak under Biden.
We also know that undocumented migrants commit far fewer violent, property and drug crimes than American citizens and documented immigrants.
“Every other violent and property crime type the researchers examined followed the same general pattern,” reported the National Institute of Justice in September. “The offending rates of undocumented immigrants were consistently lower than both U.S.-born citizens and documented immigrants for assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft, and arson.”
There are certainly legitimate criticisms to level about border security and the handling of migrants. But we can see that MAGA world has only a loose concern with facts. That’s how you end up with ineffective responses to actual problems.
