“Instead of playing politics with this issue, why don't we come together and get it done? Let's remember who we're working for. We're working for the American people. Not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. We're working for the American people.”
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For Biden, the visit marked a U-turn on an issue he had spent years publicly trying to avoid, in part because of Trump-era policies he rescinded after winning office — such as halting border wall construction and not forcing asylum seekers to leave the country. They were sent back to Mexico to await immigration proceedings – exacerbating the crisis.
Now, thanks to Republicans' rejection of a bill that could have addressed the problem — after Trump made clear he wanted to campaign on it — Biden has sought to turn political weakness into electoral opportunity.
However, Trump wasted no time in responding, capitalizing on growing anger over crimes involving illegal immigrants that has gained national attention in recent weeks. He accused Biden of fueling what he called a wave of “immigrant crimes.”
The most recent was the murder of a college student in Georgia, Lakin Riley, where an illegal immigrant from Venezuela was arrested.
Claiming that migrants crossing the border come from prisons and “mental institutions” and are terrorists, Trump insisted that the United States was “being overrun.”
Migrants wait to be processed by Border Patrol along the banks of the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass last week.credit: Bloomberg
Trump's solution is based on a plan to “carry out the largest internal deportation operation in American history.” This would use law enforcement to deport an estimated 10.5 million undocumented people, two-thirds of whom have lived in the United States for more than a decade.
But the migration crisis extends to successive governments and is affected by changing immigration patterns: previously, those seeking entry were mainly single Mexican men who wanted a job; Now there are more families and people coming from crisis-torn countries like Venezuela and Cuba, and even from as far away as India and Africa.
In an attempt to address the problem, a group of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate recently joined forces to develop a bipartisan bill that would, among other things, create new authority to bar migrants from crossing the border if the number of migrants rises to more than 5000 people on average every year. days in a given week, or 8,500 in one day.
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It also included provisions to raise standards for screening asylum applications and implement expedited deportation of ineligible people. This is important because, as Biden noted, about 2 million people are currently waiting for an immigration hearing, and many are waiting up to five years for their day in court.
However, this bill was torpedoed by Republicans at Trump's direction, and the issue remains unresolved.
“Joe Biden has created a full-blown border crisis, but Donald Trump has asked Republicans in Congress to do nothing so he can use the issue as a political talking point,” said Nikki Haley, Trump's rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Unacceptable. We cannot wait another day to deal with this crisis.”
The crisis was always the top concern for voters who spoke to this headline during the primary races in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa – all of which Trump won.
Nikki Haley poses for photos during a bus tour event in Monks Corner, South Carolina.credit: Bloomberg
A recent Harvard Harris Poll also showed that immigration comes before inflation as the most important issue facing Americans (35 percent to 32 percent). Meanwhile, figures from Ad Impact also show that candidates on both political sides spent about $US52 million ($80 million) on immigration-related ads between January 1 and February 28.
“This is clearly the most polarizing issue in the country,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. “Asylum is an integral part of our identity as a country, and it is also critical to our leadership in the world. We need to save it.”
