Why is the Department of Homeland Security Cribbing from a White Nationalist?
Conservatives have long argued that their calls for immigration restriction are race-neutral. Someone in the administration is making this hard to believe.
Trump began his presidential race in 2015 with wild claims that Mexicans were conspiring to send rapists over the border and a promise to categorically ban the immigration of Muslims to the United States.
While he backed off these more maximalist claims and proposals, they helped contribute to the impression that his immigration policies are less about the rule of law and illegal immigration and more about culture war — blocking certain ethnicities and religions from the United States is obviously a very different thing than upholding the law.
A recent post from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers more reason to be concerned that there is a racial element to the administration’s policies.
On Wednesday, the DHS Twitter account posted an image of an Uncle Sam figure alongside the text “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS.”
Calling people who either overstayed visas or entered illegally to become dishwashers or crop pickers foreign invaders is a little off-color by itself, but that kind of rhetoric has become commonplace in GOP circles under Trump.
But then Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration policy analyst who spent years as an immigration lawyer, posted something that caught my eye. This image didn’t appear to be generated by the DHS itself.
He pointed to a Twitter account called “mrrobertwp,” who also credited the account called “Whitelandia” for printing out the same message in physical poster format.
“Mrrobertwp” aka Mr. Robert is a white nationalist Twitter account. He accuses Members of Congress of being “Jew owned” and he’s a big fan of anti-black racial slurs, defending their use. He believes that Trump is the “Great White Hope,” and one of his favorite slogans is “Wake Up White Man,” which he posted repeatedly.
He was proud of his achievement (who wouldn’t be?) of getting the federal government to endorse his propaganda poster.
“It's far reaching fellas. We really hit it out of the park with this one,” he told his followers after the DHS reposted his image.
I asked the DHS press department three questions.
Does the DHS regret this post?
How was it made?
Do you plan to take it down?
In response, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told me the following:
These assertions are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime.
Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country. During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation and sending these thugs back. Support your federal law enforcement, call 866-DHS-2-ICE to report criminal illegal alien activity.
Do you see a denial there?
Do you see any contrition?
(And although I occasionally make an appearance in a major newspaper or on a cable TV network, I don’t think my humble Substack is exactly “mainstream journalism.”)
Look, I think the Biden administration screwed up by being too permissive towards immigration.
But if the Trump administration embraces outright white nationalists and then won’t even fess up to it, I could see their policies becoming just as unpopular.
UPDATE: Reichlin-Melnick told me a BlueSky user was the first person who figured out the etymology of the account. This story has been updated to reflect that fact.
This is the kind of behavior that you wouldn't even see from Giorgia Meloni's interior ministry. Absolutely appalling.
Trump 2.0 feels like one long grievance rant. There is no greater service here. Rolling back child labor laws shows that this is not about acting in the best interest of working people. It's just feels like people want to remove every scapegoat. But once all the current scapegoats are gone, they will just create new ones anyway.