When President Biden and former President Trump take the stage in Atlanta on Thursday, immigration and the humanitarian crisis at the southern border will almost certainly be a flashpoint.
Many polls show that voters believe Trump is best positioned to tackle the issue, and he has consistently pressed Biden on it. He has blamed his successor’s policies for the crisis, filling his social media feeds with reports of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants, calling them “Biden Migrant Killings.” He has vowed to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without legal permission.
Trump has called migrants “animals” and even suggested they should be turned into mixed martial arts fighters.
“I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea for you to make a lot of money. You’re going to start a new migrant fighting league, just for migrants,'” Trump said before an evangelical Christian conference in Washington, D.C., last weekend, referring to Dana White, head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Such comments have scored Trump points, both with his base and beyond.
Biden faces a tougher challenge, allies and advisers say, and must hone a nuanced message Thursday evening that emphasizes the balance between the need for border security and humanity for immigrants who have already entered this country.
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“I don’t think it’s an either-or, and I don’t think the American public thinks it’s an either-or,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) told The Times this week. “We can and must do both.”
He said Thursday night’s debate will illustrate how “Joe Biden speaks to the American people. Donald Trump speaks to his base.”
Matt A. Barreto, a pollster for the Biden campaign, said an April poll he conducted found that two-thirds of respondents in key battleground states “want a balanced approach to the immigration system and report high levels of support for policies that addresses both border security and trails.” to citizenship.”
“This is what the president is pushing for and the polls suggest this is what the American public wants,” Barreto told The Times. “They want a well-managed, orderly border and they also have tremendous empathy for undocumented immigrants who have been in trouble for a long time. They want them brought out of the shadows.”
Biden has recently taken two steps that reflect this balancing act: imposing restrictions on asylum seekers and clearing a path to citizenship for undocumented partners of U.S. citizens.
For the third month in a row, respondents to an April Gallup poll named immigration as the most important issue facing the United States. a A recent Washington Post-Schar School of Policy and Government poll of swing state voters found that only 42% of respondents said immigrants in the country illegally should be deported. Nearly 60% say they should be given the opportunity to apply for legal status.
Still, Trump’s approach to immigration is favored over Biden’s, 52% to 26%, according to the same poll.
During the debate, Trump is likely to raise serious crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants.
In one case, two men from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally earlier this year were charged in connection with the death of a 12-year-old girl in Houston. “We have another killing of Biden migrants – it’s just getting worse, and it’s all Crooked Joe Biden’s fault,” Trump said on Truth Social.
But research shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the US. The Times reported earlier this year that Trump was raising money with Thomas Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who helped implement the widely derided family separation policy.
In response, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: “Biden’s reversal of President Trump’s immigration policies has created an unprecedented and illegal immigration, humanitarian, and national security crisis at our southern border.”
Leavitt said that if Trump returns to the Oval Office, “he will restore all his previous policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shockwaves to every criminal smuggler in the world, and marshal every federal and state force necessary to carry out the largest deportation in history.” to get going. operation in American history.”
Read more: Races in California in turmoil due to border, immigration. It could tilt control of the House
In recent weeks, Trump appears to be modulating, saying in a podcast that immigrants who graduate from American universities should receive a green card. The comments sparked fierce opposition from his allies.
His spokesperson then clarified that not all graduates would receive a green card, saying this would “apply only to the most thoroughly vetted graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
Earlier this year, Republicans in the House of Representatives heeded Trump’s demands and rejected a bipartisan border security bill after months of negotiations in the Senate. The negotiations also exposed divisions among Democrats and reflected two comments Biden must make Thursday: how to speak to voters who think the southern border is too porous while highlighting the contributions of immigrants already in the country are.
“Every American should know that Trump proudly killed the strongest bipartisan border bill in a generation — by siding with fentanyl traffickers over the Border Patrol and our security,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said, hinting at an attack opportunity Biden could use Thursday.
Padilla opposed the Winter Compromise because it did not include reforms to help farmworkers and undocumented immigrants already in the country. Biden said at the time that he would have signed the deal, but it never reached his desk, mainly because of Trump’s opposition.
While he didn’t like the deal, Padilla said Biden has done a good job with executive orders and public statements aimed both at securing the southern border and helping people already here. Padilla pointed to a recent executive order that would protect immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens who have lived in the country for at least 10 consecutive years. The move could allow as many as 500,000 of these immigrants to gain quick access to U.S. citizenship.
Unlike Padilla, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) supported the Senate compromise deal. The former Phoenix mayor saw it as a good start that immediately addressed his constituents’ frustrations and would have restored “operational control” over the border. Stanton has traveled frequently to border stations and ports of entry — often with Republicans — and said what he has seen is intolerable.
Read more: Tired and confused, the first migrants reach the California border after Biden’s asylum order
Earlier this month, the Biden administration raised the legal bar for asylum claims and restricted access to asylum for those crossing the border illegally, while arrests averaged more than 2,500 per day, as is typical.
The change will be hampered without additional funding, which the border law would have provided, administration officials emphasize. Mexico has agreed to accept migrants from certain other countries, such as Venezuela and Cuba, allowing some to be quickly removed from the US. But officials cannot rely on consistent cooperation from other countries, such as China, to take back their citizens.
Still, after record numbers of apprehensions late last year, Border Patrol said preliminary data since Biden’s announcement showed apprehensions were down 25%.
Figures from May show that the number of arrests during his presidency fell to the third lowest of any month on record.
Customs and Border Protection reported that agents recovered 895 migrant remains in fiscal year 2022, three times as many as in 2018. Advocates say the number is a vast undercount.
Stanton said the debate is a moment when Biden can point to these achievements and lay out how Republican intransigence has torpedoed all efforts to find more lasting solutions. Stanton was at Biden’s executive order signing ceremony, where he highlighted the work of an undocumented nurse who helped COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. The nurse had taken advantage of deferred action for child arrival.
“Biden understands the fundamentals of saying you need strong border security and appropriate immigration, and smart immigration reform,” Stanton said. “They have always gone together.”
Times staff writer Andrea Castillo contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
