More than 160 religious, civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups asked U.S. congressional leaders in a letter to denounce lawmakers who resort to white supremacist and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
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The petition was made on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed. Organizations from 24 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia signed on to the letter to top congressional leaders. Among them are the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, UnidosUS and America’s Voice.
The letter requests not only “unequivocal denunciation of white supremacist and anti-immigrant rhetoric and its use by members of Congress, “but also “encourage your committee members to refrain from using this dangerous rhetoric.”
“That rhetoric is known as the Great Replacement theory, a racist conspiracy theory that claims that increasing numbers of immigrants and people of color will lead to the extinction of the white race,” explained the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Today we join over 160 other organizations in a letter to demand @SenSchumer @LeaderMcConnell @SpeakerMcCarthy and @RepJeffries unequivocally denounce white supremacist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and its use by Members of Congress.
Read the letter ⬇️ https://t.co/AjF8DeRIa9 pic.twitter.com/XG44vEhq30
— America’s Voice (@AmericasVoice)
August 3, 2023
The organizations noted that dozens of lawmakers have referred to migrants as “invaders” or an “invasion,” invoking the Great Replacement theory, the report said.
“Despite this repeated violence in the United States, members of Congress continue to invoke the anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that have inspired multiple violent attacks,” the letter stated.
The El Paso shooting of August 3, 2019, against the Hispanic community, left 23 dead in a shopping mall in El Paso (Texas), as well as attacks against African Americans in Buffalo (New York) and Jews in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), among others.
The perpetrator, Patrick Crusius, was sentenced on July 7 to 90 consecutive life sentences. Crusius had pleaded guilty last February to 90 federal charges of murder and hate crimes, in exchange for which the U.S. government did not seek the death penalty for him.
