‘Dehumanizing’ myths blaming Mexican immigrants for COVID surge are baseless, experts say
Since Day One, the COVID-19 pandemic and racism have been near inseparable.
When the coronavirus first appeared in the United States, people of Asian descent were attacked — and continue to be — while being blamed for the pandemic, leading to a rise in racist encounters ranging from verbal to physical assault.
Now, as COVID-19 surges again, some elected officials have blamed migrants — specifically migrants coming across the southern border — for the surge in cases. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds have all shared that message recently.
The message isn’t just racist. It’s simply not true, experts say.
Public health experts maintain there is no correlation between migrants coming across the southern border and the latest surge of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. The federal government has not disclosed any data on the number of migrants who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Associated Press.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, however, Hispanic adults have experienced a rise in racist encounters, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 39% of Hispanic adults surveyed said they have experienced one of four incidents, from fear of being threatened to being told racial slurs.
“I’m not really sure how many immigrants are coming across Southwest Missouri and the Springfield area where we know there has been a huge surge,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kansas Health System. “I think we are seeing more massive surges, even in places where there’s no immigration concerns.”
Last week, Doughboys, a doughnut shop in Raytown, put a sign up in the window that read, “Stop importing COVID from Mexico unmask truth.” The owner of the shop, Marjain Breitenbach, later changed the sign to read, “Stop importing COVID through border unmask truth.”
Breitenbach, 66, did not offer any credible data supporting his claim that migrants are adding to the surge in cases. “Look it up,” he said when asked what sources he referenced. He said he would not take down the sign.
Over the past week, the Kansas City metro area added 4,730 new cases after having added 5,000 the previous week. Deaths have also increased as the metro recorded 54 more in the past week.
But the rise in cases isn’t due to migrants coming into the area. The surge is tied to low vaccination rates across the metro area, said Dr. Mario Castro, chief pulmonologist at the University of Kansas Health Systems.
“It’s still a pandemic of the unvaccinated and we continue to see that in our hospital,” Castro said. “What’s clear is over 95% of those we are seeing in the in-patient side in the hospital are unvaccinated.”
The idea that migrants bring disease into the country follows a long pattern throughout history. The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was from a Washington state resident who had been visiting Wuhan, China. Part of the reason for passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was because officials blamed Chinese people for bringing smallpox and the bubonic plague.
Such rhetoric allows people to focus on the behaviors of others and not their own behaviors that contribute to the surge — like getting vaccinated, following social distancing and wearing masks when indoors.
“It’s a much more believable story to blame immigrants when we have already seen them as other than ourselves and blame them for our problems: economic, political, social, cultural,” said Natalia Molina, distinguished professor of American studies and ethnicity at the the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Community leaders in Kansas City were outraged at the Doughboys sign, saying it perpetuates a racist idea of migrants being responsible for COVID-19.
“First and foremost, it’s dehumanizing us. It’s dehumanizing us as people,” said Karla Juarez, executive director of Advocates for Immigrants Rights and Reconciliation. “It is attacking a certain group of people and blaming that group of people for the latest COVID surge.”
Michael Macias, the executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Kansas City, said the rhetoric is similar to when COVID-19 first emerged and there was a lot of racist anti-Asian rhetoric and attacks against people of Asian descent.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first started hitting the U.S. there were continued attacks against Asians and people of Asian descent. Former President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus.”
“I think that’s one of our inherent traits of being American, is we want to put the blame on somebody (else),” Macias said. “You’ve had Americans, for years, saying, ‘Well, Mexicans are coming across the border and taking all of our jobs.’ You and I know that’s not what’s happening.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
