Immigration, the Indispensable Issue

There’s no other issue the Right can rally around

When Donald Trump came down the escalator in 2015, he made one issue the central plank of his campaign: immigration. Trump's sustained emphasis on immigration and its consequences set him apart from the rest of the GOP field and defined his movement. It galvanized the conservative electorate across the country, and the Republican Party eventually adapted to match his focus.

But some on our side want to move on from immigration politics. They claim it’s a “settled” issue and that it’s time for conservatives to focus on something else. One of those advocating this position is podcaster Darryl Cooper, better known as “Martyr Made.” 

“The immigration issue, unfortunately, is settled,” he tweeted last week.“We’ve passed the tipping point where it is no longer possible to achieve the political consensus needed for decisive action on the issue. The sooner right wingers accept that reality and make the necessary adjustments, the better.”

Martyr Made expanded on his tweet in a convoluted thread where he argued America is destined to become a majority-minority country. He insisted there’s not enough support to enact immigration restriction at the federal level, so any resistance to the continued mass influx of foreigners is futile. He dismisses his own two proposals to move the ball on the issue: white conservatives either ally with “conservative cholos" or launch a Marshall Plan for Latin America. Cooper is right: neither of these ideas are viable. But his solution--telling conservatives to move to places like Montana where they can focus on local politics--is even worse. Cooper goes even further when he says these new red staters should focus their political efforts on keeping out “Californians.” Woe to those heeding his advice with Golden State license plates.

Martyr Made is wrong: the immigration debate is not settled. America becoming a majority-minority country is not a finish line. No “Game Over” screen will flash across the sky when we cross that demographic threshold. Less immigration will still be good for America. Tens of millions of whites will still live here and not want to be completely overrun by the third world. And there’s still a possibility of reversing those trends. But it will be very hard to do so if we throw in the towel on immigration. If we ignore this critical issue, our country will get even worse.

There are ways to reduce immigration–just don’t expect Congress to enact them. Any president can slash immigration numbers through the executive branch. Donald Trump did that in his own years in office, making it harder to legally come here. He issued tough rules such as barring entry to potential welfare recipients and cut refugee intake to the lowest level on record. His travel ban and hardline reputation convinced many would-be migrants to not come. Net immigration fell by an estimated 49 percent during his tenure. That’s serious results, which our current president has done his best to reverse. Biden effectively curtailed immigration enforcement with a stroke of a pen, allowing millions of migrants to pour into the country. He’s even figuring out ways to increase the number of legal immigrants admitted without congressional approval.  

Trump did not end illegal immigration and he could’ve done more on the issue, but he was a godsend compared to Biden. A future Republican president can do a lot to reduce the migrant flow. All he needs is a smart policy plan, a team to carry it out, a savvy legal strategy to get it through the courts, an insistence his judicial nominees support immigration restriction, and the will to execute. 

Frankly, immigration is the only issue that can support a genuine nationalist movement. Immigration is the foundation of the Great Replacement, the civilizational crisis facing the West today.  Of course, the Great Replacement is not limited to immigration. It includes the eradication of our history, tradition, and values and our ability to live in safe neighborhoods and send our kids to decent schools. The Great Replacement has produced the widespread feeling that our country is under threat. It is the critical issue, and immigration is the best way to represent it to the public.

Prevailing taboos around race limit how right wingers can talk about the Great Replacement. Politicians won't start tweeting Miami Beach fights and declaring the city has a “Magic” outbreak. But they can denounce the border crisis as an invasion. They can talk about how illegals are pouring into towns all across the country. And they can openly state Democrat leaders want to swamp Republican voters with foreigners Immigration as an issue lays out the basic elements of the Great Replacement theory. It makes people start to consider demographics, inherent group differences, and what makes America America. No other issue can do this while appealing to ordinary Americans in terms they understand 

Martyr Made's alternatives are vacuous. Moving to a rural area is not a political act, it's just another version of white flight. Rural areas still receive refugees and illegal immigrants. They still have drag queen story hours. And they can still be bombarded with the worst elements of American culture. Harassing the local liberals probably won’t protect these towns from these ills. The local liberals aren’t the ones who bring the migrants–it’s the federal government with the help of NGOs. The drag queen story hour may be brought to the town by the local liberals, but the inspiration for it is brought by America’s mass culture. Unless rural areas cut themselves off entirely from the internet, they will still feel the pull of modern degeneracy as much as anywhere else.

Local and state politics are important and can accomplish a lot of things, but they can’t stop the Great Replacement. Re-calibrating the Right’s focus to local matters is a cop-out. Many Americans already do this. Their purview doesn’t extend past their backyard. They keep their mind on what’s around them and going on in their own life. As long as world issues don’t directly affect them, they don’t mind them. This mentality doesn’t keep out the larger forces in the world and these folks eventually accommodate them. 

Martyr Made is eager for the Right to accommodate these forces as well. He argued in his thread that nationalists should work together with minorities. To what end is uncertain, but it’s certainly not to challenge the Great Replacement. The puffed-up hostility toward Californians shows an additional accommodation. Liberal Californians are a safe, white target to vent your rage at. No one will call you a bigot or put you on a watchlist for complaining about white emigrants to your community. It’s a different matter if you protest against Liberian refugees in your community.

The American Right currently suffers from a lack of coherent focus. Many people know there’s something fundamentally wrong with our country, but can’t articulate what they stand for. It’s easy to use right-wing jargon and share the memes. It’s more difficult to articulate the core issues and what you want to change in the world. Abandoning immigration in favor of localist escapism only makes the problem worse.

The better solution is to reemphasize what we’re truly about. We’re not driven by dreams of ranch retreats, ridiculous conspiracy theories, or the undying hatred for people who may have once lived in the city. Our core concern is the Great Replacement. It threatens our very civilization. If we do not address it, there will be no idyllic Montana town to run to.