With a border deal hanging in the balance and the Iowa caucuses a month away, Donald Trump amplified his attack on immigrants at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” the former president said. “They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world they’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia.”

While in the White House, Trump sought to deter immigration by building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, building some 450 miles of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile border, much of which replaced existing barriers. In addition to strict border security measures, his administration also implemented a travel ban for people from several predominantly Muslim countries.

  • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Understanding this phenomena is part of tolerance. Muslims are very hierarchal culturally. Generally new immigrants see themselves as on the lower end of the hierarchy with several layers of people above them who are within their rights to oppress them. Unfortunately, Muslims tend to see LGBTQ+ as belonging below them. Biden might be saying “we’ll make America better for you”, but until they see LGBTQ+ people as worse off than them, someone with a hierarchal mindset will not feel better off.

    Trump might say “we’re going to oppress Muslims”, but he’s also saying “we’re going to oppress gays and trans much more”. Someone that’s hierarchal minded will see that as improving his position in society. Their position isn’t absolute, it’s relative.

    To beat this we have to understand that most immigrants, not just Muslims, have a hierarchical mindset. We need to fight against social hierarchy as a mindset, and include that in the messaging we give to new immigrants. We also have to understand that LGBTQ+ rights are going to lose us considerable immigrant vote and time our pushes accordingly to ensure the best chance of success and the fastest possible progress.