Wisconsin’s vote on the sting as immigrant scare tales unfold

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The tales that matter on cash and politics within the race for the White Home

The author is a contributing columnist, primarily based in Chicago

Immigrants consuming canine in Ohio and hijacking college buses in California: false migrant scare tales have already marred the US election marketing campaign. However when one seems to have substance, it will probably run away with the general public creativeness — and probably make all of the distinction in a decent race. 

Not too long ago, former president Donald Trump seized on the story of a Venezuelan unlawful immigrant, with ties to the Tren de Aragua prison gang, arrested for sexually assaulting a girl and attacking her daughter in a distant nook of Wisconsin. The alleged assault passed off within the picturesque Mississippi River city of Prairie du Chien, one of many oldest European settlements within the Midwest, in one of many tightest of electoral swing states, Wisconsin. The final two presidential elections have been determined there by a margin of underneath 1 per cent. 

Coming into city earlier this month, I finished for recommendation on find out how to pronounce the city’s French identify: regionally, it’s referred to as “Prairie doo Sheen”. Trump had been there solely days earlier than, utilizing the Venezuelan gang case to hammer house certainly one of his favorite marketing campaign themes: his declare that many unlawful immigrants are criminals. Not too long ago, he insisted that immigrants are genetically predisposed to crime. Immigration consultants say he has severely distorted migrant crime statistics, however I wished to see if the 5,373 residents of Prairie du Chien have been anxious. 

It’s the interval of the city’s autumn yard gross sales, so I went from yard to yard asking: how can immigration be such an enormous concern in a metropolis over 1,200 miles from the southern border, with a tiny migrant inhabitants (even the mayor couldn’t put a quantity to it), of largely hard-working farm staff? 

Everybody instantly introduced up the Venezuelan case. “That’s not a fabrication,” Trump supporter Cory Gokey, 48, informed me. He was referring to the truth that, whereas native officers deny migrants are consuming pets in Ohio, the Prairie du Chien arrest has been authenticated by native police.

Gokey informed me that his surname is the anglicisation of his ancestral French identify, Gauthier. Doesn’t that make him an immigrant too, similar to me and most People? What in regards to the close by ceremonial mounds of the unique Native American inhabitants of the world, who would have seen each of us as unlawful immigrants? Gokey remained adamant: “unlawful immigration is an issue in the entire nation, together with right here,” and Trump ought to be re-elected as a result of he “solved it” when he was final in workplace. 

“I’m Hispanic myself and I believe immigrant crime is an issue right here,” a 35- year-old Latina mom informed me, gathering crumpled greenback payments from the day’s gross sales. She declined to present her identify due to her husband’s job. “Of their house nations, crime shouldn’t be managed and persons are afraid of these criminals there after which they arrive right here,” she insisted. Trump’s message gave the impression to be resonating on the yard sale circuit: I didn’t discover anybody who disputed it. 

Mayor Dave Hemmer doesn’t agree: “politicians wish to blow issues out of proportion somewhat bit,” he informed me, including “we had that one remoted incident, and we haven’t had anything, and I don’t anticipate to have anything”. Dale Klemme, the native Democratic celebration chair, additionally insisted that “there isn’t any drawback . . . this Venezuelan didn’t randomly decide any individual to assault” so there was no threat to most people — police have mentioned he was identified to the lady he allegedly assaulted. 

However native Republicans are clearly exploiting the arrest for all it’s price: on the native GOP workplace, outsized mug pictures of migrants charged with crimes in Wisconsin are arrayed in a sort of immigrant wall of disgrace.  

The problem “unites and galvanises the Republican celebration,” Wisconsin pollster Charles Franklin informed me. His newest Marquette Regulation College ballot exhibits that “after the financial system, immigration is [Wisconsin voters’] second most necessary concern.” Trump has potently linked the 2, alleging that immigrants are taking US jobs and even draining hurricane-relief funds. 

Will immigrant scare tales tip the electoral steadiness in razor-thin Wisconsin? No person is aware of for positive, however on this marketing campaign Republicans insist that “each state is a border state”. Even the quietest nook of the furthest state is being dragged into the political border battle.