Usha Vance’s RNC speech against backdrop of ‘mass deportation’ signs draws allegations of hypocrisy

Making her debut at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Usha Chilukuri Vance spoke proudly about her Indian immigrant parents. But viewers on social media criticize her for what they see as a glaring contradiction: the strongly anti-immigrant sentiment that permeated the audience to whom she spoke.

“Usha Vance talking about being the daughter of immigrants while mostly white people at the RNC hold ‘Mass Deportations Now’ signs is quite a scene,” one person tweeted.

Throughout the night, blue and red signs dotted the convention hall, reading “Mass Deportations Now.” Audible chants of “Send them back” also reverberated several times as politicians like Usha Vance’s husband, former President donald trumpThe government’s chosen vice president, JD Vance, spoke about the entry of “illegal foreigners” into the country.

Experts say that this dichotomy confirms a strategy long elaborated by the right.

“There are good immigrants and there are bad immigrants,” said Pawan Dhingra, professor of American studies at Amherst College. “And the Republican Party is just trying to embrace, quote, ‘good immigrants.’”

During her speech, Usha Vance addressed her upbringing and how it contrasted with her husband’s.

“My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community, with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister,” she said. “The fact that JD and I even met, let alone fell in love and got married, is a testament to this great country.”

She said JD adapted to her vegetarian diet and even learned how to cook Indian food for his parents. “It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream,” she said.

During his speech Wednesday night, businessman and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also invoked his family’s immigrant history — along with a much clearer message about those who are undocumented.

“Our message to all legal immigrants in this country is this: You are just like my parents,” he said. “You deserve the opportunity to secure a better life for your children in America. But our message to illegal immigrants is also this: we will return them to their country of origin.”

Dhingra said this rhetoric is especially harmful when it is espoused by the very children of immigrants like Ramaswamy and Usha Vance, as it serves to create a divide between communities of color whose histories are not so different.

“Immigrants generally come to the United States to find work and/or safety, as well as to reunite with family,” he said. “The government imposes limits on the number of people who can enter legally. These limits are arbitrary. If employers’ need for immigrant workers exceeds these limits, then, in a sense, the government created undocumented immigration. So this binary between good immigrants and bad immigrants doesn’t make sense.”

When asked to weigh in on the criticism, Vance’s team sent a response from Jai Chabria, JD Vance’s advisor and family friend.

“White liberals attacking a successful brown woman so violently is exactly why Democrats are bleeding so many minority voters right now,” he said.

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung also said the criticism was unwarranted.

“It’s disgusting that unaccustomed liberals and far-left media outlets lose their minds and implode when confronted with a diverse and hugely successful figure who they think should be blindly aligned with them,” he said.

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, J.D. Vance cited immigration as one of the main causes of financial difficulties in the USA, including immigrants in general who are taking jobs from American citizens.

These positions and the greater political transformation of the vice presidential pick put him at odds with his wife’s immigrant family history, experts say.

“‘Hillbilly Elegy’ was trying to talk about the decline or concerns of white, rural Americans who felt left behind,” Dhingra said. “The problem is that Trump has taken these concerns and turned them into a highly anti-immigrant approach…[JD Vance] He played to a highly right-wing base, and that’s what won him Trump’s support.”

But despite his tirades against undocumented immigrants, Trump’s time in office has seen reduction of legal immigration pathways also. Limits on high-skill work visas, such as H1Bs and green cards, have made it difficult for foreign workers to enter and remain in the country. As a result, American companies have lost employees and some experts fear that Trump will only double down on his second term.

Indian citizens, who represent almost 75% of H1B petitioners, would be hit hard.

As one of the new faces of the MAGA movement, Usha Vance could have a unique role to play in the coming months when it comes to covering these issues, Dhingra said.

“I think having a Hindu Indian-American wife will support the Republican Party’s rhetoric that they are not anti-immigrant,” he said. “They just want to make sure that immigrants come and ‘adapt’ properly to the country and that they don’t threaten certain ways of life.”

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with