Al Sharpton called the influx of illegal migrants an “invasion,” drawing attention from many as the Left typically avoids such terminology.
The prominent social justice activist and Baptist minister made the remarks on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday during an interview with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“What is being done to get the public to really rise up in various states to say to their senators that they want to see the borders — the border issue resolved?” Sharpton asked Murphy.
Al Sharpton on MSNBC: "You're getting migrants beating up policemen in the streets of New York… We're looking every day at the invasion of migrants" pic.twitter.com/lqJy4wFqyS
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 6, 2024
“I mean, you’re getting migrants beating up policemen in the streets of New York,” Sharpton continued. “You are seeing an influx of migrants all over the country that, frankly, have people outraged.”
Sharpton asked whether there could be “some kind of public pressure” put on senators to the effect of, “Why are you allowing this to continue?”
“Because at the end of the day, senators have to deal with their voters,” Sharpton said.
“And at the same, in the bill you give money to Gaza, to civilians in Gaza, and Israel,” Sharpton said. “But the border, I mean, we’re looking every day at the invasion of migrants, and they are playing a time game with politics on this?”
Cities including New York City, Chicago, and Denver are struggling to metabolize an influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who have arrived since spring, 2022.
Texas has sent more than 100,000 migrants to sanctuary cities to ease the strain on border towns.
Last week, several illegal migrants were arrested after allegedly beating up NYPD officers near Times Square. Several were subsequently released without bail.
Former President Donald Trump has been criticized by the media for repeatedly using the term “invasion” to refer to the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants crossing the porous southern border.
As recently as December, an article in The Washington Post called such language “dehumanizing.”
“This is an invasion. This is like a military invasion,” Trump said at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada in December. “Drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists are pouring into our country at record levels. We’ve never seen anything like it. They’re taking over our cities.”
Trump, the clear leader for the Republican presidential nomination, has said he would spearhead the “largest deportation operation in American history” should he be elected president again later this year.
The former president famously kicked off his 2016 campaign with a speech that focused heavily on illegal immigration, saying Mexico was “not sending their best.”
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” he said at the time. The former president’s emphasis on immigration helped make it a central issue of the election cycle.
Some figures on the Right took notice of Sharpton’s language on Monday.
“When Al Sharpton says, we have a problem on our southern border with an ‘invasion of migrants,’ you know things have really gotten serious,” former Trump advisor Roger Stone posted on X.