RNC's day 2 focuses on immigration and crime: here's what Republican leaders are saying

SEATTLE - Day two of the Republican National Convention featured a list of party leaders including former presidential hopefuls Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as well as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Immigration is dominating the conversation.

The first Latino to take the stage was Bernie Moreno, senatorial candidate for the state of Ohio. Moreno, a Colombian-American who moved to the United States when he was a child, endorsed Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as the Republican candidates ahead of the November elections.

Moreno's speech centered around immigration. "The American Dream that I lived is under attack by Joe Biden and his enablers in the Senate like Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)," he said. "They have encouraged millions of illegals to invade America." He also added that Democrats have put "the welfare of illegals ahead of our own citizens" with their policies.

Since pursuing a career in politics, Moreno has fully supported Trump's idea of deporting millions of illegal immigrants from the United States. In his first run for the Senate, he compared Democrat figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to "radicals like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara." "If we're going to protect this country from the socialist left, and keep this precious idea built on the concept of freedom, then we need outsiders who back up their words with action," he said.

Like Moreno, other speakers highlighted their support of the Republican party's agenda on the issue. Hung Cao, senatorial candidate for Virginia, said that "under Joe Biden, millions of illegal aliens have flood our borders, they fly Hamas flags on our campuses and shout death to America."

A Vietnamese immigrant who spent 25 years in the Navy, including service in combat zones around the world, added that "as an immigrant to this great country, let me be very clear to everyone that comes here: don't ask for the American Dream if you are not willing to obey American laws and embrace the American culture."

When Vivek Ramaswamy took the stage, he doubled down on the issue, saying that if Trump gets elected, "they will seal the southern border on day 1." "And I say this as the kid of legal immigrants to this country that means your first act of entering this country cannot break the law."

The word "border" was mentioned 27 times in this year's Republican Party platform, compared to just 17 times in 2016, the last year with a full Republican platform, CNN noted. Similarly, the word "invasion" appears six times in the 2024 platform, up from zero mentions in 2016.

Last year, when Ramaswamy was still looking to get nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, he told NBC News in an interview that he would deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants, arguing that "under the legal theory that the child of an illegal immigrant is not someone who enjoys birthright citizenship, then it would be perfectly legally permissible to remove the entire family unit."

After Trump entered the the arena, Texas Senator Ted Cruz took the stage and started his speech at the Republican National Convention saying "God bless Donald J. Trump" and gave thanks to "God Almighty for protecting President Trump" at Saturday's rally in Pennsylvania, where he survived an assassination attempt. Cruz then continued saying that the U.S. is facing "an invasion" on its southern border, claiming that "illegal immigrants" are raping, murdering and assaulting Americans.

Trump has often mentioned that a new wave of crime is overtaking the country by something he called "Biden migrant crime." Despite Trump's claims, many researchers have found there's no connection between immigration and crime. Some have even found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the US.