Jay Feely is hardly the Trumpiest candidate in the GOP primary race for the Phoenix- and Scottsdale-based Congressional District 1, a title that may rightfully belong to former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik. But at Wednesday’s GOP debate, the Trump-endorsed Feely did his best to live down to the MAGA mantle.
Specifically, when asked about affordability issues in Arizona, the former NFL kicker xenophobically scapegoated immigrants, falsely blaming rising housing costs on the state’s undocumented residents. He also pejoratively referred to those residents as “illegals,” a descriptor that stigmatizes a largely brown-skinned group of people, many of whom have lived productive and law-abiding lives in Arizona for years.
“When they willingly allow tens of millions of illegals to come across the border, and then they changed the verbiage and said that they were lawfully present,” Feely said in a rambling, incomplete thought on the debate stage, which included repeating misinformation about undocumented immigrants dragging down Medicaid and the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program. “Now those people are here, and they’re buying homes and they’re renting homes and they’re driving up the cost.”
Put simply: That’s wrong, and it repeats a time-worn racist dogwhistle of blaming immigrants for societal problems.
Numerous studies show that immigrants have a net positive effect on the economy and, more specifically, are not causing the housing crisis. For one, immigrants — including...
The Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has noted with concern the circulation of unfounded and misleading claims suggesting that its petroleum products are exported to Lom...