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Trump supporters marked the third day of the GOP convention on Wednesday by waving signs declaring “Mass Deportation Now!,” as Republican leaders railed against illegal immigration and demonized undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

“Send them back!” attendees chanted, prompted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who spoke at the convention, and who said Donald Trump would “arrest the criminal illegal immigrants and put them behind bars.”

He lambasted the Biden administration for standing against his efforts to secure the border, “to take back our land and wire it shut.”

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice president pick, also took the stage on Wednesday and claimed that undocumented immigrants, who he referred to as “illegal aliens,” worsened the lack of housing. “Citizens had to compete with people who shouldn’t even be here for precious housing,” he said. 

Former President Donald Trump has previously boasted he would use the National Guard to deport millions of migrants if reelected, but for many, the sight of the signage promoting mass deportation proved to signal something more threatening. 

“The mass deportation signs are so offensive. This is scary and giving Nazi vibes. Immigrants are human beings Greg!” wrote Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC on X. 

“St. Peter is watching you!  This is not what Jesus would do,” the group added, referencing Abbott’s Catholic faith. 

“Republicans with their hate for immigrants on full display for the whole country to see. This is what we’re up against,” Voto Latino said in reaction to the signs.

“Guess they don’t eat. The majority of the food that feeds America is from our domestic food supply. Brought to you by immigrant workers – from the fields to the roads to the checkout counter,” the United Farm workers said of the signs. 

A recent CBS News poll found that 62% of voters favored the U.S. government enacting a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants. This includes 53% of Latinos who feel this way, according to the survey that took place between June 5-7.

Immigration experts, however, note that poll respondents likely interpret the legalization question “to be about folks who have already been here for long, which matters a lot for support,” Alexander Kustov, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, previously said.

An Axios-Ipsos Latino poll released in April found that more than half of U.S. Latino adults worried that any new mass deportations would target all Latinos regardless of legal status. 

“The impact on the social fabric of mass deportations would be catastrophic. It would be a nation rent apart,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council on X, who noted on Wednesday that the undocumented population is between 3-4% of the U.S. population.

Thomas Homan, who under Trump oversaw Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also spoke at the convention and alerted Mexican cartels that if Trump is elected, “he’s going to wipe you off the face of the earth.”

“As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens … you better start packing now. Because you’re going home,” said Homan, a contributor to Project 2025.

Biden-Harris 2024 Hispanic Media director Maca Casado issued a statement Wednesday, according to Axios, saying: “Nothing spells unity or American values like putting the architect of family separation, Tom Homan, on in primetime during the Republican National Convention.”

“Neither Trump or Tom Homans gives a damn about fixing the immigration system Trump himself broke, but because Trump thinks it’s good politics to pick on the most vulnerable,” the statement read.