With eight months to go before the presidential election, polls conducted by various polling firms show that the economy and illegal immigrants are among the most important issues for voters.
Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden visited the Mexican border on the same day ahead of primaries in 15 major states, dubbed “Super Tuesday” because of the importance of immigration.
Trump promised to crack down on illegal crossings and repatriate illegals if elected president and accused President Biden of flooding the country with migrants through his open-door policy.
Biden defended the $118 billion “border security and foreign aid” package they presented to Congress. The Biden administration tried to kill two birds with one stone by squeezing the border security budget into the military aid package to Ukraine and Israel.
However, with Trump’s call, the Republicans voted against it and the bill fell. In his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Biden blamed his Republican rival Trump for the bill’s defeat.
The mutual accusations of the two presidential candidates actually reveal their electoral strategy on illegal migration.
Voters agree that illegal migration is a problem
Republican and Democratic voters seem to agree that illegal immigration is a problem, even if they have different views on how to solve it.
One of the locations where fikrikadim is covering the “Super Tuesday” primaries is the border city of El Paso, Texas. Texas, one of the largest states in the US, is also the driving force of the country’s economy. While the vast majority of voters are traditionally Republican, the border city of El Paso has a Democratic majority.
Speaking to fikrikadim, an anonymous Republican voter listed the country’s most important problems as “the economy, immigration and veterans’ rights.”
“Immigration is a very important issue for me,” said a retired US Army soldier, explaining that the US is a country of immigrants, but that everything must be done within the legal framework. Because they are hurting our economy and they are giving the privileges that they should give to veterans to those who come illegally from abroad.”
Saying that the US military works to protect the borders of various countries around the world but cannot protect its own borders, the retired soldier criticized the Biden administration’s failure to secure the Mexican border while helping Ukraine and Israel.
The retired soldier said he believes that the Biden administration is spending money on immigrants that should be spent on American citizens.
Paola Chavez, a retired Democratic voter, said, “I believe that there is money being spent in places where it shouldn’t be spent. The border wall is one of them. I think this money should have been spent on helping people, on technology. Not on a stupid wall that prevents even wolves from migrating.” She criticized the Trump administration’s border wall project.
Another retired woman voter said, “I want change. I am not happy with the way things are going these days. There should be new faces. I think almost everything needs to change, the immigration and border issue…”
“We voted for other things, they used this authority against our will.” The female voter stated that she voted for Biden but was not satisfied with his administration.
Rick Floris emphasized that illegal immigration is a problem and stated that he does not believe that there will be a change while there is this conflict between the parties, but something must be done.
The reason for the increase in illegal migrants crossing the Mexican border
The entire southern land border of the US with Mexico is 3,145 kilometers long.
The states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California lie along this border.
Former US President Trump had sent back immigrants arriving in the country as of March 2020, citing Article 42 of the Health Law on epidemics with the Covid-19 outbreak.
After the pandemic, illegal crossings from the Mexican border increased with the expiration of Article 42 after May 2023.
According to US Border Patrol data, December 2023 also saw the highest number of 250,000 people in a single month.
Republicans argue that the number of illegal immigrants entering the country during the Biden administration exceeded 7 million.
