Ads Show The GOP's Immigration Agenda Is Just Family Separation by Another Name
Claudia Hernandez, Senior Communications Manager at the Immigration Hub
Last week, GOP Vice Presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance refused to answer whether or not he and Donald Trump would revive the harmful family separation policies of the Trump era. Last month at the Republican National Convention (RNC), the former President’s son Donald Jr. dodged a similar question, instead calling the journalist a “clown.” It’s a telling pattern, one that begs another question: Why is the Trump-Vance campaign so reticent to address the issue?
The answer lies in the deep unpopularity of the zero tolerance policy, which separated over 5,000 children from their parents. Despite 58% of voters opposing the policy, it remains the cornerstone of Trump and Vance’s entire immigration platform. Sweeping raids, mass deportations and detention camps all result in family separation - a cruel agenda that recent ad spending data reveals they are fully committed to pursuing.
Since Trump’s emergence as the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016, the party’s immigration strategy has largely centered on fear mongering and division. Nowhere is this more evident than in their political advertisements, particularly in 2024. Vera Action notes that this year’s immigration-related spending has already far surpassed the $71 million spent in the entire 2020 cycle and the $181.5 million spent from January to November in the 2022 cycle. According to AdImpact, GOP candidates and right-wing groups have already spent over $222 million on anti-immigrant television, streaming, and digital advertisements in the first six months of this year alone.
The ads are riddled with misinformation, portraying immigrants as criminals and threats to American society. In ten key battleground states last month, Republican and right-wing groups aired these ads over 49,000 times, with terms like "border" and "crime" repeatedly used to paint a false picture of an America under siege by immigrants. Despite polling that shows 66% of voters in favor of a balanced, humane approach to immigration—one that includes both border security and a pathway to citizenship–the GOP’s ads focus exclusively on punitive enforcement, using dehumanizing language and misleading imagery that reduces immigrants to invaders and criminals.
These ads aren’t just misleading, they serve to justify the GOP’s cruel policy agenda. The Trump-Vance campaign has explicitly promised to detain and deport millions of hardworking undocumented immigrants, ripping them from their communities and from their families.
[video compilation of GOP ads]
Voters, of course, reject this ugly rhetoric and oppose these cruel policies out of hand. When faced with the choice, a majority of voters prefer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (61%) over mass deportations (39%). Still, the saliency and ubiquity of the GOP’s cruel crusade cannot be ignored - especially as Democratic spending on the issue falls far behind in comparison.
In recent years, we’ve seen the tragic consequences of such fear-mongering manifest in radicalized white supremacist actors. The 2019 El Paso shooting, where a gunman killed 20 people and injured dozens, is a horrifying example. The shooter explicitly cited fears of a "Hispanic invasion" in his manifesto—language eerily similar to that found in many GOP ads.
While Trump and Vance may not say it explicitly, their entire immigration agenda is centered on family separation. This became evident once again when, this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led sixteen other states in a lawsuit challenging the widely popular Keeping Families Together program - which offers a path to citizenship for undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens.
It’s essential for Harris to seize this moment. As she and Governor Tim Walz continue campaigning across the country, she must build on her statements on border security by leaning into a unifying message on immigration: one centered on keeping families together, not tearing them apart. Not only will this message resonate with voters in key battlegrounds, but it will serve as a crucial counter to the GOP’s ugly agenda - the one they say out loud and the other they refuse to acknowledge.
