Support truly
independent journalism
A Missouri Republican with a history of attention-seeking political stunts is promising to “crack down on illegal immigration” in a widely derided ad loaded with racist stereotypes.
Bill Eigel, a GOP state senator running for governor of Missouri, stands next to a Spanish “translator” as he pledges “no more taxpayer handouts to illegals, period. Nada, zilch, zero.”
“No more illegals. No more money. The party is over,” the translator says in Spanish.
“We’re throwing them in jail and sending them back where they come from,” Eigel says.
Over a trumpet riff, the translator says “ay caramba” while grabbing the sides of his head.
The ad flashes “no more illegal immigrants” as a voiceover says Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales’ catchphrase “andele, andele, arriba, arriba.”
“It’s time to take Missouri back,” Eigel says.
On X, the video includes the caption: “The party’s over. Pack your bags. You’re getting the hell outta here.”
Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe, one of Eigel’s Republican challengers in the governor’s race, said the ad offended Missouri residents. “I just had one of our firefighters tell me how upset he was about that ad,” he told The Kansas City Star. “I had a member of the Hispanic community tell me how upset they were.”
“Our state can’t succeed and attract businesses and a talented workforce with leaders running on racist bigotry,” said Crystal Quade, the Missouri House Democratic floor leader and a Democratic candidate for governor. “We need a leader who will unite Missourians, not divide us.”
“Missouri GOP candidate for governor Bill Eigel is out with a blatantly racist and un-Christian TV ad mocking Latino people,” said Scott Charton, a former Missouri capitol reporter for the Associated Press. “Shame on Bill Eigel for cynically appealing to the worst of us in his race to the bottom. Missourians want hope, not hate.”
Republican congressman from Florida Matt Gaetz, who endorsed Eigel, called it a “great ad.”
“Liberals are calling me a ‘racist bigot’ and demanding TV stations cancel my ad. I’ll never apologize for deporting illegals or my conservative values,” Eigel wrote on X after backlash to this week’s ad.
“I don’t know how it could be racist to enforce the immigration law in this country,” Eigel told local ABC News affiliate KMBC. “I think that Joe Biden’s non-enforcement of immigration law in America is pretty Looney Tunes, andI think that any idea that anybody is a racist because we want to enforce the law is insane.”
The vast majority of law enforcement’s encounters at the US-Mexico border over the last three fiscal years have resulted in “removal, return or expulsion,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
President Biden’s suspension of certain entries has reduced encounters at the southwest border by 55 percent, according to the White House. In June, Border Patrol recorded 83,536 encounters between ports of entry, the lowest number since January 2021, according to DHS.
Eigel’s ad — which is running on social media and on local television networks — follows a series of false and inflated claims and deliberately provocative statements that have drawn negative press attention that Eigel has then turned around to attack the press and his political opponents who criticize him.
Last year, Eigel and a group of Missouri Republicans torched a stack of cardboard boxes with a flamethrower. False claims from social media users who said the men were burning books drew a viral response from Eigel — who said he would burn “woke” books “on the front lawn of the governor’s mansion.”
The state banned at least 330 books in the 2022-2023 school year, most of which involved stories by and about Black people and LGBT+ people and dealing with sexual assault, according to a report from PEN America.
In February, Eigel rejected legislation that would grant abortion exceptions for rape survivors because a “one-year-old could get an abortion under this.”
“You want to bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” he said.
Groups fundraising for Eigel’s campaign also were also hit with a cease-and-desist notice by Donald Trump’s attorneys after a political action committee solicited donations for Eigel’s campaign by asking to support the former president’s legal battles. But instead of giving the money to Trump, it would go to Eigel’s campaign, the fundraising email said.
