The 2019 shooting at the El Paso Walmart, which left 23 people dead, is described as one of the deadliest anti-Latino attacks in recent U.S. history. Within hours of the shooting, law enforcement officials had found a message from the alleged gunman saying the attack was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Of those killed, seven were of Mexican descent.
Abbott denounced the attack as domestic terrorism and the act of a white supremacist. He also appeared ready to soften his own rhetoric about immigration, saying after the shooting that “mistakes were made” in using language in a fundraising letter that called to “defend” the Texas border. It was published a day before the El Paso shooting.
“Unless you and I want liberals to succeed in their plan to transform Texas — and our entire country — through illegal immigration, this is a message we MUST send,” Abbott wrote in the fundraising appeal.
After the shooting, Abbott emphasized conversations he’d had with El Paso officials discussing “the importance of making sure that rhetoric will not be used in any dangerous way.”
“I did get the chance to visit with the El Paso delegation and help them understand that mistakes were made and course correction has been made,” he said, referring to the language used in the fundraising letter.
Mario Carrillo, an immigrant rights activist who grew up in El Paso, said there was no excuse for officials like Abbott and Patrick to repeat the language this week, given their conversations after the El Paso shooting.
“They can’t claim ignorance and say they didn’t know this language could potentially lead to violence because it happened before,” he said. “I wish elected officials thought more about their words because those words have consequences. Are there others that read or listen to remarks like that and think, ‘Well, I don’t want our country to be invaded, so I’m going to take things into my own hands’?”
The repetition of the word “invasion” to describe immigrants is similar to messaging employed by former President Donald Trump. Out of 64 rallies he attended where he discussed immigration, Trump used the term at least 19 times. He also used words such as “killer,” “criminal” and “animal” to refer to immigrants, according to an analysis from USA Today shortly after the El Paso shooting.
Source: Critics denounce Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick’s immigration rhetoric as harmful | The Texas Tribune


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