A television ad by a Republican gubernatorial candidate from Missouri promising to deport migrants and featuring a Spanish translator playing Western music was immediately condemned as racist on Wednesday.

The ad, a direct-to-camera message from Senator Bill Eigel, is a bold attempt to draw attention to his campaign in the final days before the Aug. 6 primary. The message also brings to the forefront fears about immigration, a major issue among Missouri Republicans this year.

In the 30-second ad, released Tuesday, Eigel and an unidentified man of Hispanic descent stand in front of an American flag in the background while text appears on the screen saying the ad is a “message for illegal immigrants.” Eigel promises to crack down on illegal immigration, saying he will “throw them in jail” and “send them back where they came from.”

The unidentified man acts as a translator but adds flourishes, at one point saying in Spanish: “The party is over.” When Eigel says that migrants are being sent back, the man throws his hands on his head in despair.

Eigel, of Weldon Spring, has sought to portray himself as the most conservative Republican in a race that also includes Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. Eigel has earned a reputation in the Missouri Senate as a caustic opponent, frequently blocking legislation and criticizing Republican leadership for not being conservative enough.

Eigel was once considered a likely third-place candidate in the Republican race for governor, but he has fared better in recent polls that show a close race. A poll conducted in late June put Eigel in second place, about 4 percentage points behind Kehoe.

All three major Republican candidates have made illegal immigration a central issue in their campaigns, but Eigel has used the most extreme rhetoric, threatening mass deportations, even though the federal government is largely responsible for enforcing immigration laws and Missouri authorities cannot unilaterally force individuals to leave the United States.

Missourians “angry” about ad

In an interview with The Star on Wednesday, Kehoe said he had heard from Missourians who felt insulted by Eigel’s ad.

“One of our firefighters just told me how upset he is about this ad,” Kehoe said after a campaign rally in Blue Springs that was also attended by firefighters who support the lieutenant governor.

Kehoe said that on Tuesday in Sedalia, “a member of the Hispanic community told me how angry they were.”

“Look, Senator Eigel is trying everything he can to get coverage, and the more people start telling him that – whether they call it racist or whatever they want to call it – the more media coverage he gets,” Kehoe said. “So this is his way of getting his name out there in the world of earned media.”

Ashcroft’s campaign team had no immediate comment on the ad.

Crystal Quade, minority leader in the Missouri House of Representatives and a Democrat from Springfield who is running for governor, said on social media that the state needs a leader who will unite citizens, not divide them.

“Our state cannot succeed or attract businesses and talent if its leaders are based on racist bigotry,” Quade wrote.

The Eigel campaign team seemed pleased with the ad, issuing a press release on Wednesday boasting about the video’s views and highlighting Quade’s conviction.

Asked to respond to criticism of the ad, Eigel’s campaign said in a statement that Kehoe “sounds exactly like the liberal he is.” The campaign was referring to comments Kehoe made in an interview with KMOV in St. Louis in which he criticized Eigel’s call for mass deportations.

“While Mike Kehoe plays the liberal game and accuses anyone he doesn’t like of racism, Bill Eigel is betting on conservative policies and results,” Eigel’s campaign spokesman Zeke Spieker said in a statement.

When Kehoe was asked by The Star newspaper whether he thought the ad was racist, he responded by pointing to comments from other people who felt offended by the ad.

GOP targets illegal immigration

The Republican primary for governor in Missouri and other statewide elections have been dominated by rhetoric about migrants. The stakes are high for the Kansas City area, which has been a hub for migrant arrivals in Missouri over the past decade, according to U.S. immigration court data analyzed by The Washington Post.

Since 2014, approximately 8,300 migrants have settled in Jackson County, 37% of whom are from Honduras. That’s more than the 7,326 migrants who settled in St. Louis and St. Louis County during the same period.

Three-quarters of voters believe the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is a crisis that must be resolved immediately, according to a poll conducted in February by Saint Louis University and YouGov. Crucially, 97 percent of Republican voters agreed that it is a crisis.

Governor Mike Parson deployed Missouri National Guard troops to assist Texas earlier this year with a plan called Operation Lone Star that will use Texas state resources to combat illegal border crossings.

Parson, whose term ends in January, campaigned heavily for the deployment, even though he ultimately rejected funding for a further deployment.