[person] We're hardworking Americans.
You think people are trying to replace you?
Yeah.
They're trying to get rid of us.
[Trump] Every day, criminals, murderers,
and sexual predators are pouring across our border.
[Vegas] The GOP turn toward politics
of identity and resentment
might prove to be a dangerous one.
People feel like they are under siege.
Is the Republican Party becoming
-the party for white people? -[person] Yes.
Heil Hitler.
[Paola] We're in Estero, Veracruz,
in Eastern Mexico, where there's over 5,000 people
that are disappeared.
speaking Spanish
These are mothers and fathers and family members
searching for answers that they believe
authorities aren't giving them.
speaking Spanish
driving electronic music
[distant siren wailing]
[anchor] Breaking news out of Buffalo, New York,
where at least seven people have been shot and killed
in a mass shooting at a Tops grocery store.
[Kenneth] Right now, Father,
in the name of Jesus, God,
we ask that you allow this day, God, to be a peaceful one.
[worshiper] Yes, Lord, yes.
We're outside Tops supermarket
in Buffalo, New York, where a gunman opened fire,
killing 10 people, all African American.
The shooter had been radicalized online
and was a believer
in the Great Replacement theory.
[Kenneth] It was more than just a murder.
It was a heinous, racial-motivated killing
that took place here.
And everybody on that wall is from this community.
uneasy music
[Vegas] The Great Replacement
is a far-right conspiracy theory
centered on the idea that there is a plot
to replace and even exterminate the white race.
It can be traced back centuries,
most often targeting Jews.
The Holocaust was a direct result of it.
Since 2011, extremists who believe in it
have killed more than 170 people
in places like Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Buffalo.
But now, according to polls,
millions of everyday Americans,
including almost 70% of Republicans,
believe in some version of the theory.
Is it racist? Sure.
But its recent mainstreaming is no accident.
I've spent the better part of a decade
embedding with various white supremacist groups.
And I've heard a lot of different variations
of the Great Replacement theory.
I was in Charlottesville, where they were chanting
-"Jews will not replace us." -Jews will not replace us!
[Vegas] It was there that I last met
with Matthew Heimbach.
He led the Traditionalist Workers Party
from its inception
and was an early amplifier
of Great Replacement ideology.
He's since left the movement,
but we're here with him today to find out
how this theory has spread into the mainstream.
The people who believe that the global elites,
parentheses, Jews,
are replacing, exterminating the white race--
what are they really afraid of?
We can break it down into two main threads, really.
-Okay, we can do that. -Okay.
So the first one, I would say, is
that people see how the colonial order
that was established, where people of color
were exploited and lived as second-class citizens,
and they see that being just reversed.
White folks are gonna have the exact same experiences
-as people of color again. -So revenge, almost?
Revenge, yeah.
The second one, though,
is the fear of multiculturalism,
a multiracial society with differing viewpoints,
religious values, languages, stuff like that,
could lead to conflict inevitably.
-Civil war? -Civil war.
There's only so much money.
There's only so many jobs.
And more people means less for my community
and less for my children.
[Vegas] Most conspiracy theories
have kernels of truth, data points
that believers can refer to to justify their claims.
This theory is no different.
Since 1980, the relative size of the white population
has decreased in comparison with other races.
By 2045, white people will no longer be in the majority.
[Matthew] White folks in America
are becoming a minority,
whether it's the opioid epidemic,
whether it's immigration, whether it's, you know,
the just lack of having kids, 'cause who can afford to have
kids in modern America?
There's a very small piece of the pie
that everyone here is fighting over.
And I think the fear of folks is that our piece
is gonna get even smaller.
And that's a legitimate grievance.
[Vegas] This anxiety has propelled
a shift in the messaging.
As the political climate in the U.S.
has turned uglier and more polarized than ever,
traditional conservative media
has weaponized the changing demographics
to sell a new version of replacement theory,
that Democrats are bringing in immigrants
to replace Republicans.
The Great Replacement, the replacement
of legacy Americans with more obedient people
from faraway countries.
Democrats who wanna replace
you, the American voters,
with newly amnestied citizens
and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.
This is exactly their strategy.
They wanna replace the American electorate.
[Vegas] The midterms are just months away,
and many politicians have leaned
into the replacement theory
in all its racist and conspiratorial glory.
It was front and center
in Blake Masters' successful bid
to run as the GOP candidate for Senate in Arizona.
We went to a recent rally where he was joined
by former President Trump.
[Trump] Every day, criminals, murderers,
and sexual predators are pouring across our border.
[all] Boo!
[Vegas] In the parking lot outside,
many people seem to believe that Democrats were indeed
trying to replace Republican voters like them,
never mind the fact that non-citizens can't vote
in federal elections.
What are your thoughts about what's happening
-on the border right now? -It's wrong.
What do you mean, wrong?
They're letting people through.
They're being brought.
Joe Biden is screwing everything up.
He's just letting 'em come in,
giving 'em everything they want.
[Vegas] Why do you think he's letting them come in?
Why?
So they can come in and vote for him.
-[Vegas] Really? -Yeah.
[Vegas] As we chatted with folks,
we spotted a patriotic-looking pickup truck.
I'm with Vice News.
Can I take a ride around the block with your truck?
[Vegas] One of the things that I've heard
Blake Masters say
is that the Democrats are looking to sort of effect
a kind of demographic change because they think
that immigrants will vote Democrat.
I agree, because they're getting all the welfare.
I've seen a significant amount of illegal immigrants
coming here and charging half of what I need to charge
in order to make a living.
They're taking my job from me.
That means they're taking food out of my kids' mouth.
[Vegas] And then they vote Democrat?
Exactly.
[car horns honking]
We're hardworking Americans.
All I care about is my family and providing for them.
You think people are trying to, like, replace you?
And I don't mean necessarily you specifically,
-but people like you? -Yeah.
They're trying to get rid of us,
our generation, our mentality.
[Vegas] But there's no evidence that there are
nefarious forces conspiring to orchestrate that change.
Justin Gest is a political scientist
who studies demographic shifts.
While he acknowledges that the government is
allowing in immigrants,
he says it's not for any underhanded reasons.
The fact is, we need them.
So it's like the replacement theory
is kind of, like, all of it, in a way is true,
but it's also completely untrue.
In fact, quite the opposite.
The U.S. government has done this precisely
because they're worried about the declining population
of white people in the United States.
It's not good for the United States, right?
We have an economy that needs a certain amount
of working-age people.
We have a social security system
that requires workers to pay in sufficiently to fund
people's retirement pensions.
So actually, the people in the U.S. government
who are pro-immigration are not actually eagerly anticipating
white people's decline.
Actually, they're really concerned about it,
and they're trying to do something to make it better.
[Vegas] In fact, in some parts of the country,
immigrants can actually come to be
the GOP's greatest electoral asset.
[Justin] Democrats still win a substantial number
of their votes, but everything in politics is at the margins.
Recently, there's been a lot of news showing
that Latinos are starting to find the Republican Party
more appealing.
[Vegas] And Republicans know it.
While Great Replacement pushers at the national level
tout the threat of immigrants, the GOP
is actively trying to court those same immigrants
on the local level, essentially playing
both sides of the deck.
speaking Spanish
[Vegas] At this GOP-sponsored civics class in Miami,
in a Republican state with a large Latino community,
immigrants are studying for the citizenship test.
Many are eager to become voters,
including Republican voters.
What do you have to have in order to vote nowadays?
You have to be a citizen.
And you have to be 18 or over.
speaking Spanish
Do you guys have political affiliations too?
Some Republicans have been saying that, you know,
Democrats are bringing in immigrants
because they automatically will vote Democrat.
-Absolutely not. -[student] Yeah.
We have Cubans.
We have Bolivians. We've had Nicaraguans.
We've had Latinos from Mexico.
We are absolutely not a political monolith.
[Vegas] Despite the civic-mindedness
of the GOP here in Miami,
the greater Great Replacement messaging
may prove to be a dangerous one.
[Matthew] What the GOP is doing right now--
it's kind of like a toddler with a handgun.
There is no peaceful political avenue
for a lot of folks that might follow this perspective.
And most people are not going to do something horrific,
like shoot up a mosque.
But the system has created an environment
where the sort of pressure valve
of people who could engage in peaceful political activity
has been taken away.
And people that feel like they are under siege,
what's their option?
[Vegas] We had already bumped into some of those people
at the Trump rally in Arizona,
now bold enough to drive around with Nazi shorthand
on their car.
Your front license plate says 1488.
Uh-huh.
[Vegas] What does that mean?
"We must secure the existence of our people
and a future for white children."
Heil Hitler.
[Vegas] Is that important to you?
Yes, it is.
Is the Republican Party becoming
the party for white people?
Yes.
Do you feel like you have been represented
in the political system before Trump?
No.
[Vegas] By either party?
Either party.
What would you like to see happen?
On one night, we all get rid of the government
and start over.
What do you mean when you say get rid of politicians?
The only way to get rid of politicians
is to... get rid of them.
[laughs] Sorry.
[crowd] USA! USA!
[Vegas] American politics have become
exponentially more volatile over the last decade,
and in the case
of Great Replacement theory messaging,
duplicitous.
While the GOP courts both xenophobes and immigrants
in the pursuit of power, they exacerbate
the already-deep national divisions,
potentially putting us on track
to see more violence like we did in Buffalo.
Obviously, you know, Trump and these guys
would never say it as explicitly as you guys
because I don't think they would make it that far.
But--
They are thinking the same thing I am.
[Vegas] You think so?
Yeah. Yeah.
They have the ideology of us.
They just can't say that because then they won't win.
low electronic music
chanting in Spanish
[Paola] We're in Estero, Veracruz,
in Eastern Mexico, where there's over 5,000 people
that are disappeared.
We're following a collective of mothers and family members
that are searching for their missing loved ones.
[Araceli] speaking Spanish
[Paola] They've already recovered over 50 bodies
just in these large territories.
Some have been searching for three years,
others for ten years.
But every single one of them are searching
for answers that they believe
authorities aren't giving them.
At least 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico
since 2006 amid the country's worsening drug war.
While the vast majority are men, in the last four years,
the number of missing women has increased by 65%.
Many have fallen victim to human trafficking,
but the numbers also reflect a disturbing new trend.
Historically, women and children have been
off limits for criminal organizations,
but now, they're being targeted as a means
to extract revenge between rivals.
[Araceli] speaking Spanish
[Paola] Araceli Salcedo is part
of the Mothers Collective of Orizaba,
and has spent years searching for her daughter, Rubí,
with the hope that she's still alive.
speaking Spanish
somber music
[Paola] Mexico has one of the world's highest rates
of human trafficking,
and it's risen by at least 40%
over the last four years,
in part due to Mexico's economic crisis.
Many women are lured by the promise of a job,
only to find themselves forced into the sex trade
by traffickers.
We spoke with one such predator
from Mexico's largest human-trafficking network.
speaking Spanish
[Paola] Séverine Durin investigates
disappearances in Mexico,
and is an authority on the forces
that are driving the crisis.
speaking Spanish
[Paola] In the absence of a functional justice system,
mothers often rely on anonymous tips
from witnesses or repenting criminals
to locate their missing loved ones.
Araceli was tipped off to the location
of one such grave site in an area
that's actively being used by a local crime organization.
speaking Spanish
-[Araceli] See? -[Paola] Yeah.
[Araceli] speaking Spanish
[Paola] Since 2012, Araceli and the collective
have found hundreds of bodies,
which are now stored in a nearby morgue.
They're part of the 52,000 unidentified bodies
in morgues or state cemeteries across the country.
This number has haunted the Mexican government
and served as evidence of its corruption,
mismanagement, and neglect,
all of which have contributed to the lawlessness
within its borders.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
is the latest Mexican leader to be held accountable.
His policy of non-confrontation,
dubbed "hugs, not bullets,"
has been criticized for emboldening
criminal organizations.
speaking Spanish
[Paola] Under scrutiny for its prolonged inaction,
the Mexican government is now playing catch-up.
But lost time is not
the only obstacle in their way.
Mexican criminal organizations often obscure
the identity of those they murder.
In mass grave sites, like this one in Tamaulipas,
dismembered body parts are burned
and broken down into fragments,
which has prevented many families
from identifying their loved ones.
Due in large part to their advocacy,
collectives like Colectivo Amor por los Desparecidos
has forced the government to adopt new laws
surrounding the disappeared
and prompted the establishment
of a state-of-the-art forensic lab
that catalogues remains and identifies missing people.
In this building, there's hundreds of bodies
and thousands of human fragments.
Many of these fragments have been rescued from mass graves.
They're then taken here to start
the grueling process of identifying
who these victims are.
[Amy] speaking Spanish
[Paola] Former law enforcement and human rights lawyer
Yezka Garza is a general coordinator
of the center.
speaking Spanish
[Paola] Until the Mexican government
accepts the responsibility
for thousands of its own missing people,
the work of finding them will continue to fall
on their mothers.
[Araceli] speaking Spanish
[Paola] Shortly after we left, Araceli and her collective
found another clandestine grave site
and dozens of new bodies.
speaking Spanish
[Paola] The search for her own daughter continues,
but she hopes to find her before she runs out of time.
speaking Spanish
moody music