Border Patrol union president and active border agent Brandon Judd continues to make no secret of his extremist ideology, now speaking at a conference organized by a designated anti-immigrant hate group. Zachary Mueller, political director for immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice, is among voices noting that Judd appeared at a recent gathering organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Tanton network organization that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
And like Mueller has diligently documented, this is not a one-off for the agent. “Judd has also participated in political ads this cycle that normalize political violence.” Mueller notes “his increasing prominence in the Republican party,” including participating in an anti-immigrant event with Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Jim Jordan.
RELATED STORY: Border Patrol union president goes on Fox News to spew white supremacist 'replacement theory'
“Every one of the speakers at his press conference has promoted the racist (and false) ‘replacement’ and ‘invasion’ conspiracy theories, which were cited as the inspiration for multiple white nationalist terrorists, including those in Buffalo and El Paso,” Mueller tweeted. Cruz echoed this invasion rhetoric just hours after the racist mass murderer killed Black shoppers in Buffalo. The remark was no fluke: Cruz later shared and reshared the right-wing radio show clip where he made the comment.
”There was also no follow-up on the complete BS they pushed, including Judd, who lied about a correlation between fentanyl and unauthorized migration,” Mueller continued. “The opioid crisis is a serious problem, but the one thing it is not is an immigration issue.”
Like we noted earlier this month, it’s overwhelmingly U.S. citizens, not migrants, who are getting caught with drugs, available data has showed. “Out of the 42 incidents in which a person's nationality was reported, 33 (79%) involved US citizens. Just 3 incidents involved a smuggler without legal status,” one immigration policy expert shared at the time.
Of course, none of that matters to Judd, he has a narrative to spread (and a racist one at that), appearing on Fox News this past spring to openly promote the false, racist “great replacement” theory. You know, the same one “cited as the inspiration for multiple white nationalist terrorists, including those in Buffalo and El Paso,” Mueller notes.
Even before that, Judd—who is once again an active border agent and employee of the federal government—appeared in a right-wing ad where a political candidate shot at actors portraying President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. The U.S. Senate candidate, Arizona Republican Jim Lamon, absolutely reveled in the outrage. Of course he wanted the attention, because when Republicans aren’t busy trying to overturn democracy, they live to troll liberals. But as we noted at the time, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t forcefully speak out when we see vile acts by sick fucks like Lamon and Judd.
“Judd is no stranger to FAIR and has participated with the hate group before, which was founded by the late John Tanton, a eugenicist and white nationalist who published, sold, and distributed an English edition of the racist French ‘great replacement’ novel ‘Camp of the Saints,’” Mueller continued. My colleague David Neiwert has also noted that Judd urged right-wing Texas governor Greg Abbott to “absolutely” declare an invasion at the southern border, once again echoing the rhetoric of racist mass killers.
“The ‘invasion’ declaration idea is being heavily promoted by the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank led by Ken Cuccinelli, a former Homeland Security official under Trump,” Neiwert said. The very strange anti-immigrant loudmouth was found by both a nonpartisan watchdog and a federal court to have been serving unlawfully in that administration. “Abbott has not committed to the plan, however,” Neiwert continued. “Most legal observers note that the term invasion is reserved to mean an ‘armed hostility from another political entity.’”
But Republicans really are falsely claiming that asylum-seeking families and other migrants are hostile threats, despite their voters being the ones who sacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Shit, GOP lawmakers themselves were in on the attempted coup, as recent House hearings have continued to confirm. But you won’t hear that from Judd or any of his pals.
RELATED STORIES:
Arizona GOP candidate revels in outrage after releasing vile ad depicting political violence
Ted Cruz echoes Buffalo mass murderer's invasion rhetoric, then doubles down
GOP’s cheap and dangerous ‘invasion’ talk on the border is tawdry compared to Ukraine’s reality
