Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric in Public Opinion

TUESDAY , APRIL 9

PROGRAM #10338 12:00 PM PT

Immigration Edition. As the election season unfolds, political candidates are more and more filling their campaign rhetoric with claims of a “migrant crime wave” and a “border bloodbath.” Social media and brochures are flooded with news and messages about “illegal immigrants” who are committing violent crimes and “killing our country.” In another common claim, politicians are blaming health insurance programs expanded to immigrants in some states for “creating perverse incentives for illegal immigration.” Why are immigrants the target of these campaigns? What’s behind those claims? Who is generating them? How are those claims impacting public opinion and the electorate?

Guests: Gerardo Guzmán, Program Host and Reporter, Atlanta, GA; Michael A. Rodriguez, Executive Director, California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity and Faculty Associate, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA; Santiago Pérez, Associate Professor of Economics, ​UC Davis, Davis, CA.

Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection via Facebook

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