Marjorie Taylor Greene Warns Americans About French Riots

GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is using the unrest in France to warn Americans that similar rioting could happen in the U.S. if the nation doesn't implement stricter immigration laws and defend gun rights.

Greene told her Twitter followers on Monday that Muslim migrants are to blame for the French riots and that the country's gun laws have prevented its citizens from owning arms to defend themselves against the rioters.

"Muslims migrated to France over the past two decades and France took them in while making it difficult for the people of France to own guns for self protection," Greene tweeted.

"We need strict immigration laws and strong borders and always defend our great second amendment rights. Do not import criminals and religious radicals and strip your citizens of their God given right to defend themselves," she said.

France has seen nearly a week of protests in the wake of a police shooting that killed a 17-year-old boy and stirred up long-simmering tensions between the French police and young people in the country's immigrant communities. France's interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said that the average age of the thousands of protesters who were arrested last week was 17.

Greene isn't the only one to draw parallels between the recent events in France and American immigration policies. Politically, the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has been a weak spot for the Biden administration, bringing fierce Republican attacks over the past two years.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has reversed Trump-era restrictions on immigration. As a result, an unprecedented number of asylum seekers have arrived at the southern border in hopes of a better chance to enter the U.S. Although the number of daily encounters has remained low since the administration began cracking down on illegal border crossings in January, at one point more than 10,000 migrants were seeking entry every day.

Newsweek reached out by email to the White House for comment.

Some have criticized the rioting in France for being the outcome of open border policies and, like Greene, have warned there could be unrest in the U.S. if the White House doesn't push for stricter immigration laws.

In the clip that Greene posted on Twitter, Donald Trump is heard saying that "countries aren't sending their best" citizens to the U.S. and alleging that most of the migrants who arrive at the border are "in jail, mental institutions, mental asylums."

This past weekend, Sophie Louise Delquie, a Republican strategist from France, expressed sadness for her home country over Twitter, blaming "open border politicians" for the destruction and calling the riots "a wake up call to the United States."

Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, agreed, writing that unless the U.S. reclaims its border, "today, France. Tomorrow, America."

"Look at France," right-wing political commentator Mike Cernovich wrote. "That's what is going to hit the US in 2024 with the imported mercenary army the Biden regime let in through the southern border. It's going to be state allowed terrorism like never seen before."