(AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
On Friday, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance was again making headlines for the wrong reasons. Speaking at a Milwaukee press conference, Vance was asked about the waves of European migration nearly a century ago, and if he would have advocated for mass deportations back then. “Has anybody ever seen the movie “Gangs of New York?” That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “We know that when you have these massive ethnic enclaves forming in our country, it can sometimes lead to higher crime rates.”
It’s no surprise that Donald Trump’s running mate would promote a common misconception about a link between immigrants and crime. But Vance’s latest comments are out of touch with life in the 21st century, immigration policy, and even movies.
Just for the record, Vance is incorrect to conflate immigrants and crime. Multiple studies have found no conclusive link between immigrants (including the undocumented) and crime. In 2023 Stanford University researchers found that such a connection was “mythical” and unsupported by 140 years of data. Vance was also wrong when he claimed that “over the last few years,” the U.S. has allowed “20-25 million illegal aliens” into the country. Dude, check out Google or a newspaper. According to the Pew Research Center, the total U.S. undocumented population is about 11 million, so there’s no way that happened.
While Vance mentioned “massive ethnic enclaves” as some kind of threat to the nation, he did not explain what he meant by this term. Does he mean cities like Miami (72 percent Latino), or Honolulu (68 percent Asian/Pacific Islander)? Both of these cities have violent crime rates lower than the national rate. El Paso is 81 percent Latino, and the worst violence in the city’s history was committed by a white supremacist. Just wait until Vance finds out that there are entire states like New Mexico and Nevada that are “majority-minority;” perhaps he will curtail his campaign schedule out of fear.
Speaking about the need for limits on immigration, Vance told reporters, “What we did back in the early 20th century is that we recognize, I think, that we have to do today.” If only Vance understood the context of that period in immigration history. As the American Immigration Council points out, numerical caps and quotas on European immigrants were not established by the U.S. until the 1920s, and each successive restriction generated more illegal immigration. As the U.S. tried to close the door on “undesirables,” it resulted in over 1.4 million people living in the country illegally by 1925, which is hardly a policy outcome worth emulating.
Making the case for bringing immigration levels down “to zero,” Vance told reporters that it will promote “assimilation and a common American culture.” Yet when Vance married his wife Usha Chilukuri, the daughter of Indian immigrants, he had both a traditional service and a Hindu ceremony conducted by a Hindu priest. A photo of the newlyweds in Indian garb went viral after Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate. In July, Usha Vance proudly told the Republican National Convention that her husband learned to cook Indian food from his mother-in-law. So Vance’s own life can be viewed as a testament to the benefits of multiculturalism, unless “common American culture” means knowing how to whip up a few samosas.
Then again, the historically unpopular vice-presidential candidate has never been shy about twisting facts to suit his purposes. When Vance ran for the Senate, he blamed immigrants for his state’s opioid crisis. This issue is personal for me,” he stated in a 2022 ad. “I nearly lost my mother to the poison coming across the border.” Never mind that Vance wrote in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy that his mother was a nurse who would steal patients’ prescriptions.
It is indeed strange that Vance would invoke the 2002 film Gangs of New York in reference to our current immigration woes. As many social media users noted, Vance seems to have missed the main takeaway of the film. Set in 1863, Gangs of New York does not show immigrant communities fostering crime. Instead it depicts nativist gangsters terrorizing immigrant communities. On top of his misguided, inaccurate views about immigration, Vance cites this fictional story as a rationale for Trump’s promise of mass deportations – and he wonders why people consider him weird.
Raul A. Reyes is a contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion. Follow him on X: @RaulAReyes and IG: @raulareyes1.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
