This thesis examines the rhetorics of anti-immigration discourses during the second Trump administration. It draws a line of comparison between the dehumanization of the immigrant and the blueprinting of an ideal humanized citizen. Combining existing scholarship from Black feminist theory, trans studies, and disability studies, it critiques the social construction of “human” applied to conversations of human rights. By analyzing short-form, anti/pro-immigration content via social media, news headlines, and protest signs from mid 2024 early 2026, it outlines how the narrative of immigrants as monstrous threats to citizen life is crafted and upheld by conservatives and liberals alike. Ultimately, this thesis posits a turn away from this Monster/Human binary to ask what other models of personhood may more greatly benefit and protect us.
Emrys McGovern (Fri,) studied this question.