Texas GOP leans on 'old enemy' to rev up voters

With immigration issues losing their "sting," Texas Republicans are ramping up efforts to target an "old enemy" in an effort to keep voters motivated: Islam.

According to a report from The New York Times on Tuesday, "Republican officials and candidates in Texas have shifted their rhetorical attack lines" in recent months. While the party had put a heavy focus on issues surrounding the border with Mexico and immigration, it is now delving into Islamophobic rhetoric and targeting the state's increasing Muslim population, with language and rhetoric that "echoes" the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

"Ads for Senator John Cornyn of Texas have touted his fight against 'radical Islam.' Texas Republican lawmakers created a 'Sharia-Free America Caucus' in Congress. Gov. Greg Abbott has labeled one of the nation’s largest Muslim rights groups a terror organization," the Times' J. David Goodman wrote in the report.

He continued: "A 'Save Texas from Radical Islam' dinner north of Dallas last month featured Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, the conservative commentator Glenn Beck and the Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders — and attracted party activists and Texas House members... Just on Monday, the state’s hard-right attorney general, Ken Paxton, announced he would investigate a proposed real estate development in Kaufman County, east of Dallas," which he dubbed a "potentially illegal 'Sharia City.'"

Gov. Abbott has also pledged to pass a "total ban" on "Sharia Law" in the state, though as Goodman noted, "he has not said what that would mean in practice." Brooks McKenzie, a Republican activist in Tarrant County, made similar proclamations that seem to run afoul of the constitutional right to freedom of religion, arguing that Texas should "ban the burqa, the hijab, the abaya, the niqab... No to halal meat. No to celebrating Ramadan. No, no, no.”

The state party's rhetoric had, for many recent election cycles, been dominated by fearmongering over alleged "migrant caravans" and characterizing border crossings as an "invasion," in an effort to keep its voter base motivated. Now, amid the perception that Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has "halted" border crossings, those old tactics have seemingly lost their efficacy. Trump's mass deportation agenda is also growing increasingly unpopular across the political spectrum.

Muslim residents and leaders in the state, meanwhile, have called this rhetoric disturbing and expressed fear for their own safety.

“I’m shocked and I’m offended by my own elected leaders,” Democratic Texas State Representative Salman Bhojani said.

Mujeeb Kazi, a Pakistani immigrant and president of the North Texas Islamic Council, told Goodman that past anti-Muslim flare-ups were "never this bad," noting that his own face had been used on an anti-Islam flier and that he now fears for his children's safety.