US President Biden and his potential opponent Trump are traveling to the border with Mexico for election campaign events. They won’t meet, but they will compete for headlines on immigration.
Helicopters are used on the border with Mexico primarily to track down illegal migrants. Today they will also be on duty to ensure the safety of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Biden wants to speak to border guards and local politicians in Brownsville, Texas, Trump is visiting Eagle Pass, also in Texas, but around 500 kilometers from Brownsville. The fact that both are at the border on the same day (Friday night according to European time) shows how important they take the issue.
For Trump, it is at the top of every campaign speech: “As soon as I come into office, I will end the open borders policy that Biden and his administration have introduced,” Trump emphasizes and announces “the largest deportation of migrants in American history ” at. Immigrants would bring crime and drugs into the country and “poison the blood of Americans,” said Trump in his harshest verbal attacks.
Biden defended Immigration policy
Biden, in turn, accuses Trump and his Republicans of preventing a solution to immigration policy in the House of Representatives – purely for electoral reasons. “The bipartisan agreement reached in the Senate is one of the fairest and most humane reforms in a long time,” Biden said a few days ago at a meeting with governors of several states. “The package also includes the toughest border security measures ever.”
Trump only prevented the legislative package to prevent him from succeeding in the election year, Biden said in the NBC interview: “It said, don’t do it, it will help Biden. Help Biden? It’s not about Biden, it’s about them United States of America,” said the President.
Angry attacks on appeals to reason
It is typical of the opponents’ campaign style, which could not be more contrasting: here angry, emotional attacks by Trump, there appeals to reason and willingness to compromise by Biden.
Professor Josiah Heyman, who researches immigration at the University of Texas, sees Trump at an advantage on this campaign issue: “Anti-immigrant sentiment is a really influential, emotional driving force for an important part of the US electorate,” says Heyman. “There has always been both in the USA: tolerance towards immigrants, the pro-immigration attitude – and intolerance, the anti-attitude.” In the total population this is divided roughly 50:50. “But the depth of emotion, the energy, was always greater on the anti-immigration side,” he said.
In fact, the number of illegal border crossings from Mexico has reached all-time highs during Biden’s term in office. The long-distance duel between Biden and Trump in Texas is primarily about who provides the better television pictures and who makes the more surprising political announcement in order to achieve a stage victory with voters.
Ralf Borchard, ARD Washington, tagesschau, February 29, 2024 1:09 a.m