Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump travel this Thursday simultaneously to Texas,
to the border between the United States and Mexico
, in an electoral duel over an issue that is the one that worries Americans the most today and is undoubtedly one of the hottest of the campaign: the advance of migration, which Trump considers an “invasion of criminals,” while Biden accuses Republican congressmen of not passing the necessary laws to regulate it.
The candidates who will surely compete in the general elections on November 5 visit the border area
when there is a record number of migrant crossings through unauthorized crossings
and a recent Gallup poll affirms that immigration has become the biggest concern (more than government and the economy) with 28% of Americans mentioning this issue at the top of the list.
Additionally, 55% say “the large number of immigrants entering the United States illegally” is a critical threat to the country's vital interests.
When the economy is growing at a good rate and inflation has dropped to normal rates,
immigration today seems to be the big problem for the Biden campaign
, beyond its age.
An NBC poll showed that Trump leads Biden by 30 points regarding handling of that issue.
Another from Monmouth revealed that a majority now supports a border wall like the one the Republican began building during his tenure.
Biden will meet with border patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas, a Democratic enclave that has more humane treatment of immigrants, while Trump will go to Eagle Pass, about 300 miles to the west, where his ally, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, has
a heavy-handed policy
and part of the border area controlled with the military, challenging the jurisdiction of the federal government in that area.
A supporter of Donald Trump, in Texas.
Reuters Photo
The issue of migration is one of Trump's favorites
and was his battlehorse in the 2016 elections. And now he is renewing it and upping the ante: in a message on the Truth Social network he said that "the border invasion is destroying our country and killing our citizens" and again promised the "largest deportation of illegal criminals in the history of the United States" if he is re-elected.
In addition, it proposes building huge
camps to detain undocumented immigrants
and also reject asylum applications on the basis that they carry infections such as tuberculosis.
Biden, meanwhile, accuses Republicans in Congress
of “playing politics”
and not supporting reforms to the immigration system in a bipartisan proposal that failed on February 7, which included more funding for patrols, toughened the asylum system and expedited the deportation of migrants entering through the border who cannot support their protection requests.
"Every day from now until November," he said, "the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends," Biden said then.
The president has tried several policies to deter migrants from crossing the southern border, including one last year in which he limited asylum to those who crossed through a third country and did not apply for protections there.
But they have not worked because migrants continue to enter.
The latest policy under consideration,
The New York Times
reported last week, would bar asylum for those who cross the border illegally according to some sort of daily or weekly quota.
This initiative, which resembles a legislative proposal from a bipartisan group of senators that also allowed the so-called closure of the border, would have gone into effect if more than 8,500 migrants crossed in a single day, or 5,000 on average in a single week.
Biden could launch an executive order with this initiative, but, a White House spokesperson said, "no executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the meaningful policy reforms and additional resources that Congress can provide and that the Republicans rejected."