Trump’s Asylum Rhetoric Is Rooted in the Mariel Boatlift

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Donald Trump described the migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as “the greatest invasion in history.” He claimed migrants and asylum seekers were “coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums.” He repeated this claim at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention. This led to multiple social media posts charging Trump with conflating two meanings of the word “asylum.”