When I read the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto, what struck me most were the similarities between his writings and some of the things I hear from members of Congress on immigration.

I don’t blame anybody but this shooter for his horrible actions, and I’m not suggesting there’s some equivalence between what he has done and what some lawmakers have said.

But I do think it’s quite telling that the way this shooter talked about immigration is also how I hear some Republicans talk about the issue.

HuffPost has decided not to link to the shooter’s apparent 74-page manifesto. But in reality, the language from that document is already out there. His views and rhetoric have an eerie resemblance to some of the things two particular Republicans ― Steve King (R-Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) ― say about immigration, and that’s worth discussing.

Gohmert and King have denounced the shooting, and there’s no reason to doubt they genuinely are saddened by this massacre.

Still, it’s fair to evaluate how dehumanizing rhetoric has real impact in the ways people think about immigrants, particularly in light of this horrendous attack.

So in the interest of a more introspective immigration debate, let’s look at some of the remarkable similarities between the shooter’s writings and these lawmakers’ words.

This is how the shooter begins his manifesto:

If there is one thing I want you to remember from these writings, it’s that the birthrates must change, even if we we were to deport all non-Europeans from our lands tomorrow, the European people would still be spiraling into decay and eventual death.

And here’s something King said in August 2018 about fertility rates:

I’m watching emotion take over reason. When I made a statement on Twitter saying, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” it seemed to be more irritating to the left than anything I have ever said. First of all, the total fertility rate in Europe is below replacement rate. When that happens, you are a dying civilization.

Here’s the shooter on the unprecedented “invasion” of immigration:

We are experiencing an invasion on a level never seen before in history. Millions of people are pouring across our borders, legally, invited by the state and corporate entities to replace the white people who have failed to reproduce, failed to create cheap labor, new consumers and tax base that the corporations and states needs to thrive.

And here’s Gohmert in 2014, on the House floor, talking about how immigration is an “invasion” unseen since D-Day:

We know that the invasion into France by the Allied Forces consisted of about 150,000 troops. About 150,000 people was the biggest invasion in history. And since then, we come up to the year 2014 and the New York Times reported that just in the recent months we have had 240,000 adults and 52,000 children, now it’s being reported that it’s closer to 60,000 children, as I understand the article said, since April, just two months, we’ve had nearly 300,000 people invade the United States through Texas. And then it’s now being reported that there are 300,000 people making their way up from Central America to the United States.

The shooter also devotes an entire section to how “Diversity is weak.”

Diversity is not a strength. Unity, purpose, trust, traditions, nationalism and racial nationalism is what provides strength. Everything else is a catchphrase.

And here’s a now-infamous tweet from Steve King where he says “diversity is not our strength” and links to an article praising nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: