Fox Business host spreads immigration conspiracy theory: “America is being changed without our consent”

Stuart Varney: “We’re right at the breaking point”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the April 9, 2021, edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co.

STUART VARNEY (HOST): Good morning everyone. Let’s get right to it. We’ve reached the breaking point. The border has been flooded — overwhelmed. And the administration is overwhelmed with this crisis, which is of its own making.

…

My opinion — and this may sound harsh — I believe this is deliberate. This administration does not really want to stop the flow. On this issue, with this administration, I’m a cynic. The Democrats have given us an open border because they believe the people who flow into America are future Democrat voters.

This is Friday, April the 9th, we’re right at the breaking point —and America is being changed without our consent.

Contrary to Stuart Varney's accusation, the current increase at the U.S.-Mexico border is a regular cyclical occurrence at this time of year — between the end of winter, and before the heat of the summer months — combined with pent-up demand from migration that did not occur as much during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Indeed, the numbers have been rising since last year when former President Donald Trump was still in office, rather than simply beginning to increase under President Joe Biden.

Varney's remarks also come as other Fox News personalities, most notably Tucker Carlson, have openly endorsed the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that white people are being systematically “replaced” by people of color through mass immigration at the behest of shadowy elites. The theory has also been linked to far-right terrorists who committed mass shootings in both Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas, in 2019.

Fox News personalities have promoted the conspiracy theory for years, casting immigration as a “purposeful repopulation of America” and helping to propel the idea further into the mainstream of public discourse.