#2819: Maria Espinoza

The Remembrance Project is an anti-immigration organization founded by Texas couple Maria Espinoza and Tim Lyng in 2009 and devoted to “[e]ducating and raising awareness about the epidemic of killing of Americans by illegal aliens” through promoting harrowing anecdotes of crimes committed by illegal such. Espinoza had, by 2009, already made a name for herself as president of the Houston chapter of the Eagle Forum, which should give you an indication of what kind of group TRP actually is. To Espinoza, there is conspiracy afoot: immigration isn’t just a threat; it is a manufactured threat and a deliberate attempt by the powers that be to ruin America: “This Biden-Harris administration, I believe, just hates America. To your point with the border, this is intentional, it's for a reason, and the reason is to destroy our country. And we have to get a hold of it”. And it’s not like she didn’t warn you; prior to the 2020 election, Espinoza claimed that the US is “at risk of invasion under a Biden Adm[in]!”

 

And even before QAnon, Espinoza had determined that “Child molestation and rape are very numerous in this illegal alien demographic!”; indeed “unsecured communities, human trafficking, molestations of our children, are all part of the vernacular of this disease that illegal immigration speaks”. The TPR has also promoted conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rife with fraud and that Trump’s reelection was stolen from him – “Trump Won! STILL My President! Cheaters never win...wait and see!” tweeted Espinoza in February, 2021. Of course, Espinoza’s respect for the democratic processes she claims to champion is not unequivocal; in 2018 she suggested that anti-immigration actvists should find some kind of “little loophole” to remove officials who disagree with her on immigration from public office before the next election.

 

TRP is, however, at the forefront of the anti-sanctuary-cities movement and has had some serious impact, especially with the Trump administration, and it enjoys the support of a number of members Congress. TRP is also closely connected to people central to the white nationalist movement, like Paul Nehlen.

 

Indeed, Espinoza has herself tried to run for Congress, both in 2016 and in 2020, on a platform of “work[ing] to stop Socialism and the Democrats' liberal agenda, and work to peel-away the indoctrinating tentacles of education that has encroached upon parental rights and the privacy of our children.” Her 2016 platform also included e.g. a moratorium on Muslim immigration, prohibiting same-sex marriage, drug-testing welfare beneficiaries, and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

Diagnosis: It’s hard to motivate much more than an exasperated sigh here, but yeah, Espinoza is yet another conspiracy theorist in a position of somewhat significant influence and power.

 

Hat-tip: SPLCenter