WHAT IS THE GREAT REPLACEMENT AND INVASION CONSPIRACY THEORY?

This bigoted belief is rooted in white nationalist and antisemitic ideologies and suggests that Jewish people are intentionally facilitating the ethnic and political replacement of white people with an invasion of non-white immigrants from the global south.

WHAT TO KNOW

Replacement and invasion theory is a threat to public safety. These bigoted ideas have inspired multiple incidents of racially and politically motivated mass violence directed toward minority populations in the U.S. and abroad, including at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, Poway and El Paso in 2019, and Buffalo in 2022. DHS, the FBI, and the Justice Department have testified that the threat from violent domestic extremists is a leading terrorist concern. In the summer of 2023, DHS Sec. Mayorkas testified in when members amplify the replacement theory “it certainly fuels the threat landscape we encounter."

Bigoted conspiracies about migrant invasions coming to replace “real” Americans have been around for over a century.  Unfounded fears around foreign invasions helped influence Congress’s decision to pass one of the most egregious anti-immigrant laws in our history. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 has been described as “the first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history.” 

There is no equivalence between a military invasion and migrants arriving in the U.S. The courts have repeatedly made this clear. In Padavan v. United States, (1996), the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that "In order for a state to be afforded the protections of the Invasion Clause, it must be exposed to armed hostility from another political entity, such as another state or foreign country that is intending to overthrow the state's government.” 

This conspiracy theory is a threat to the homeland. Members’ use of the bigoted conspiracy theory started to metastasize in the 118th Congress. In June 2021, Rep. Jodey Arrington (TX) led an early effort to legitimize the bigoted conspiracy theory, introducing a resolution that sought to establish that the invasion clause in the Constitution applied to the current condition of the southern border, thus allowing any state to use war powers to repel an invasion.

Members have amplified the replacement and invasion conspiracy theory in their official capacity. In one of their first actions of the 118th Congress, Members introduced a resolution to impeach Sec. Mayorkas. The resolution, co-sponsored by 49 House Members, failed to provide evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor and was reliant on the replacement and invasion conspiracy theory.

Replacement and invasion theory is rampant in the current Congress. To date, the 118th Congress has held more than 30 hearings where bigoted conspiracies were espoused and dozens of witnesses from anti-immigrant hate groups were called to testify. In total, there have been 1,042 unique social media posts from official congressional accounts promoting the same bigoted conspiracies.

The urgent need to address the dangerous rhetoric perpetuated by Members of Congress, which fuels such violence and poses a grave threat to public safety nationwide, cannot be understated. This extremist discourse and the groups and Members of Congress named in the report, target many vulnerable communities. The result of this alarming escalation of anti-immigrant rhetoric and unprecedented extremist measures has been the deep fissures in our democratic institutions and the serious threats and deadly consequences to our public safety. Members of Congress have a particular responsibility not to use their power and position to legitimize bigoted conspiracies. Therefore, action must be taken inside Congress to address what is documented in this report.

CALL TO ACTION