Miami immigration group ad highlights Trump’s COVID rhetoric about Asian Americans
A Miami-based pro-immigration group has launched a TV ad targeting Asian American voters by highlighting President Donald Trump’s controversial rhetoric about China and the coronavirus.
The 60-second ad, which will air in Florida as well as other battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan this weekend, was put together by Immigrant’s List Civic Action, a pro-immigrant group founded in 2006 to support pro-immigration candidates for office.
Dubbed “Words Matter,” the ad focuses on Trump calling the virus the “Chinese flu,” “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.”
“People call it the Chinese flu,” Trump says in a video excerpt which is then followed by an image of a person holding up a sign that says, “I am not a virus.”
The ad, which also aims to sway the growing Pacific Islander registered voter population to vote against Trump in November, also cites a nationwide increase of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic. The video says the president’s rhetoric has “added fuel to the growing fire being misdirected at Asian Americans.”
Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration lawyer and a founder of the group, said Immigrant’s List chose to highlight the Asian American population because it is “often overlooked in elections.”
According to the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action — two national advocacy groups that compiled the most recently available data — more than 2,100 anti-Asian American hate incidents related to COVID-19 were reported across the country over a three-month time span between March and June. The incidents included physical attacks, verbal assaults, workplace discrimination and online harassment.
The groups launched their own hate-incident reporting website on March 19 when the coronavirus was becoming widespread across the U.S. and the media began reporting violent incidents targeting Asian-Americans.
According to the most recent American Community Survey published in December 2019, there are 17 million people who identify as Asian living in the U.S. The Asian population in Florida is 548,642, which makes up about 2.7 percent of Florida’s total population. In Florida, there are more than 280,000 registered Pacific Islander voters, records show.
Immigrant List’s ad is the first of three that will air in battleground states as the November presidential election gets closer.
The second and third ads, which will be aired in partnership with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, will target Cubans and Venezuelans in Florida and will focus on the “administration’s false promises to both communities,” said Michelle Canero, a South Florida immigration attorney who sits on the group’s board.
“We are working to highlight the anti-immigrant policies of the current administration and target New American communities in an effort to ensure they don’t vote against their interests,” Canero said. “For example, while touting an interest in protecting the Venezuelan and Cuban communities to court political support, the administration has failed to grant Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela, and has enacted policies to eviscerate eligibility for asylum which many Venezuelans apply for.”
As for the Cuban community, Canero said the policies enacted under the Trump administration have “made it almost impossible” for Cuban nationals in some cases to qualify for the Cuban Adjustment Act.
“We have also discussed highlighting the fact that the administration is perpetuating the view that foreign-born U.S. citizens and their U.S.-born children are illegitimate citizens ... challenging their right to representation and benefits, as well as expending an enormous amount of resources investigating citizenship and green-card applications for fraud and denaturalizing citizens,” Canero added, noting that the administration has refused to conduct naturalization interviews by video during the pandemic.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comment Thursday.
In a tweet posted in late March, Trump said “it is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 4:26 PM.
