Trump has railed against illegal immigration, sounded the alarm over MS-13, and has touted Ice – and Republicans have refashioned themselves in his mold

The outline of a child skips across the sidewalk as the narrator of a political ad targeting Matt Cartwright, a Democratic congressman in Pennsylvania, ominously declares: “A young girl, raped by an illegal given sanctuary in Philadelphia.”

“She was five years old. Her life will never be the same,” the voice concludes.

In another spot, aimed at Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat from Arizona, a white woman locks the doors and windows of her home as police lights flicker outside. “They talk about solving illegal immigration, but nothing happens,” she opines. “We who live here are forgotten.”

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Other attack ads flash images of tattooed gang members behind prison bars while accusing Democratic incumbents of failing to secure America’s borders.

The stark imagery embodies much of the Republican messaging on immigration ahead of the November midterm elections. Donald Trump, while stumping for Republican candidates across the country, has railed against illegal immigration and sounded the alarm over MS-13, a transnational criminal organization that represents less than 1% of gangs in the United States.

Trump has also touted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency, which is tasked with apprehending, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, as the last line of defense between Americans and violent criminals. That seems a deliberate strategy, talking up the agency’s often controversial actions as a way of stirring up a Republican base fearful of immigration.

Many Republicans have refashioned themselves in the president’s mold, echoing the sharp rhetoric that makes little distinction between bad actors and the majority of undocumented immigrants already in the country or seeking refuge at its borders.

“I don’t know if the Republican party at the national level has one message on immigration,” said Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “But the message is not one that is constructive or hopeful in the local elections.”

A review of nearly five dozen Republican-backed TV ads revealed a messaging strategy rooted in painting a dark portrait of immigrants, with a fixation on violence and crime. The threat of MS-13 and so-called “sanctuary cities” are frequent themes, juxtaposed with Republican candidates vowing to support Trump’s promised wall along the US-Mexico border.

Trump has sought to define the narrative by seizing on a movement within some progressive circles to abolish Ice, which sits within the Department of Homeland Security.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators carrying ‘Abolish Ice’ and ‘I Really Do Care’ signs during the ‘Families Belong Together’ rally in Boston, Massachusetts, on 30 June 2018. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Only a handful of Democrats endorse doing away with Ice entirely, while others suggest reforming the agency. Trump, in turn, has said at campaign rallies that Republicans “stand proudly” with Ice, while warning of rampant crime if Democrats were able to exercise their immigration agenda.

“The Democrats wanna get rid of Ice … MS-13 doesn’t like Ice, and that’s why I like Ice,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Kansas last week. Democrats, he added, backed policies “that release violent predators and bloodthirsty killers, like MS-13, into our communities”.

The White House has even held official events to honor Ice, which under Trump’s stewardship has escalated apprehensions of undocumented immigrants who either lack a criminal conviction or committed low-level offenses.

The president’s tactics are reminiscent of the nativist tone forged during his 2016 presidential campaign, which he launched by declaring most immigrants crossing the US border from Mexico were “rapists” and “killers”.

But whereas candidate Trump’s incendiary rhetoric was rebuked by most Republican lawmakers, the party has increasingly rallied behind the politics of fear – as part of a bid to mobilize a conservative base that remains overwhelmingly behind the president.

“We used to say the Republican party was divided between a pro-immigrant wing and an anti-immigrant wing. That’s no longer the case,” said Frank Sharry, the executive director of the progressive immigration group America’s Voice, which recently launched an anti-immigrant ad tracker.

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“You have a Trumpian party that has decided that stoking fear and ‘othering’ refugees and immigrants is the only way they can compete in elections.”

It’s a far cry from Republican efforts to reform its image with Hispanic voters in the aftermath of elections that showed the influential voting bloc fleeing the party in droves.

An autopsy report commissioned by the Republican National Committee following Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election offered a scathing assessment of the GOP’s posture on immigration.

“If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States, they will not pay attention to our next sentence,” the report, which was released in 2013, stated.

“It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.”

Glenn McCaul, one of the report’s co-authors, insisted Republicans continue to support immigration reform five years later. But he disputed that Trump’s ascent to the White House on an anti-immigrant platform had shifted the party’s message in any meaningful way.

“I wholeheartedly believe that the president wants to solve this issue and the Democrats don’t want to work with him,” he said.

In a statement provided to the Guardian, Yali Nunez, the RNC’s director of Hispanic media, said: “The RNC supports the work of President Trump to celebrate the contributions of legal immigrants to the United States with policies that strengthen our economy, help law-abiding individuals achieve the American dream, enforce the rule of law, and make our communities safer.”

There are exceptions to the Trumpian rule within the GOP, most of them running in competitive races with sizeable Hispanic populations, who have instead carved out a more compassionate approach to immigration.

Representatives Mike Coffman of Colorado and Carlos Curbelo of Florida have distanced themselves from the president’s controversial moves and were outspoken critics of the Trump administration’s policy of separation families at the border. Rick Scott, the Republican governor of Florida now running for the US Senate, launched a Spanish language ad touting his disagreements with Trump.

In some key races, Democrats have been successfully put on the defense. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, both red state Democrats locked in tough re-election battles, have run ads touting their support for Trump’s border wall.

The majority of political advertising remains focused on issues such as healthcare, jobs and education. A CNN analysis nonetheless found that candidates and committees have spent more than $150m this year on immigration-related TV spots – more than five times the amount spent in the 2014 midterm elections.

Aguilar said there was little doubt that Trump’s views on immigration were prevailing in Republican politics. The challenge would be for the party to reclaim its message and convince Hispanic voters that their policies were not antithetical to their values.

“I understand if you’re talking about MS-13, it is a problem,” he said. “But to have a good policy, you need to strike that balance between enforcement and border security and continuing to be a welcoming nation.”

“I just think that more positive message is missing.”

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said the tactics would only further impede the party’s efforts to appeal to an increasingly diverse electorate in the long run.

“Putting all your eggs in a basket of older whites is not a strategy for long-term political success,” he said.