{"slug":"trump-ms13-dehumanizing-rhetoric-racial","title":"MS-13 'Animals' and Dehumanizing Rhetoric: Using Gang Labels to Target Immigrant Communities","date":"2018-05-16","lastUpdated":"2020-11-03","description":"Trump repeatedly described MS-13 gang members as 'animals' — language that he and his defenders initially said was limited to violent criminals, but which Trump deployed in contexts that applied it broadly to immigrants and undocumented people generally. The dehumanizing rhetoric echoed language used to incite violence against ethnic minorities in historical genocides; experts in political violence noted that calling human beings 'animals' is a documented precursor to mass atrocity.","summary":"Trump's use of 'animals' to describe MS-13 members — and his conflation of the gang label with immigrants broadly — followed the same pattern documented in incitement to ethnic violence: dehumanization of a group, followed by calls for harsh treatment. Scholars of political violence noted the specific language echoed anti-Tutsi propaganda before the Rwandan genocide and Nazi propaganda before the Holocaust. Trump used similar dehumanizing framing for other immigrant groups, describing Central American migrants as an 'infestation' and an 'invasion.'","category":"civil-rights","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/us/trump-ms-13-animals.html","title":"Trump Called Immigrants 'Animals.' Mexico Is Outraged.","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/17/trump-referred-to-immigrants-as-animals-not-just-ms-13-gang-members/","title":"Trump referred to immigrants as 'animals' — not just MS-13","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/17/trump-animals-comment-immigration-dehumanizing","title":"Trump 'animals' remark echoes dehumanizing tactics of authoritarians","publisher":"The Guardian"},{"url":"https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17366526/trump-animals-ms-13-immigrants-dehumanization","title":"Dehumanizing language and political violence: what research shows","publisher":"Vox"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["dehumanization","MS-13","immigration","rhetoric","first-term","civil-rights","racism"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2018-05-16","title":"'Animals' remark at California sheriffs meeting","summary":"Trump says MS-13 members are 'not people' and calls them 'animals' at a White House meeting with California sheriffs. The comment generates international coverage; Mexico lodges a diplomatic protest, calling the language unacceptable."},{"date":"2018-06-19","title":"Trump tweets that immigrants 'infest' America","summary":"Trump tweets: 'Democrats are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country.' The use of 'infest' — typically applied to insects or pests — is widely noted as dehumanizing."},{"date":"2019-08-03","title":"El Paso shooting — manifesto echoes Trump rhetoric","summary":"Patrick Crusius kills 23 people in El Paso targeting Latinos. His manifesto uses the phrase 'Hispanic invasion of Texas' — echoing Trump's characterization of Central American migration as an 'invasion.'"},{"date":"2020-09-01","title":"FBI documents anti-Latino hate crime increase","summary":"The FBI's annual hate crime statistics for 2019 show anti-Latino hate crimes increased significantly during the Trump years; advocacy groups document correlations with political rhetoric spikes."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 20","provision":"Advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence shall be prohibited — dehumanizing rhetoric describing ethnic/national groups as animals meets this standard when it contributes to violence"},{"statute":"International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination","article":"Article 4","provision":"States shall condemn propaganda promoting racial inferiority or hatred; public officials' use of dehumanizing language targeting ethnic groups violates ICERD obligations"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Immigrant communities broadly subjected to increased hate crimes and violence following dehumanizing rhetoric; specific individuals described using gang terminology who had no gang connection; victims of hate crimes by perpetrators who cited Trump's rhetoric","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President of the United States","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-11-03","summary":"Updated with FBI anti-Latino hate crime statistics."}]}}