The tone suddenly rose on Friday between Joe Biden and the Republicans. At the heart of the differences: the difficult discussions in Congress on Ukraine, and especially on immigration policy. This issue stands out as one of the key subjects of the presidential campaign, the election of which takes place in November 2024, and for which a new duel between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is looming.
The former Republican president accuses his successor of laxity in the face of migrant arrivals at the border with Mexico. While a compromise in the Senate seemed possible on the bill relating to the control of illegal immigration at the Mexican border, this prospect suddenly receded this week. The American press sees it as the work of the 77-year-old tycoon.
Measures under discussion include an extension of the government’s expulsion powers and the possibility of expelling border crossers – denying them access to the asylum system – when the number of daily crossings exceeds 5,000, remember the Washington Post.
“Close the border when it is submerged”
Joe Biden hopes to convince Republican elected officials to validate his bill. The Democratic president called on conservative parliamentarians not to block an immigration project that has already been partly negotiated. He indicated that if this text was adopted, it would be “the most severe and fairest set of reforms that we have ever had in our country to secure the border” with Mexico.
“He would give me, as president, new emergency authority to close the border when it is overwhelmed,” Joe Biden said in a statement, even assuring that he “would use this power on the same day of entry into force of the law. “If you are serious about the crisis at the border, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it,” added the 81-year-old Democrat, risking, with such statements, displeasing some Democrats worried about an approach too similar to that of Donald Trump.
Voters want more firmness
But can Joe Biden do otherwise? The outgoing president knows he is politically vulnerable on the subject. “As he seeks to be re-elected”, analyzes the Wall Street Journal, “the president increasingly sees the subject of the border as a political handicap”, which pushes him to conclude this agreement with the Republicans. Indeed, according to several recent polls, cited by the conservative economic daily, “voters categorically disapprove” of the way in which Joe Biden handled the problem, wishing for a large majority of them that he would show more “toughness “, as reported International Mail. Additionally, Joe Biden wants to secure funding for Ukraine and Israel, another reason he is considering the idea of major policy changes on the Republican-backed border with Mexico.
“The largest deportation operation in America”
Donald Trump has made immigration one of the major axes of his campaign to regain the White House in 2025. The big favorite of the Republican primary, who maintains a strong hold on the party, underlined on Saturday January 27 his opposition to this draft agreement on immigration. “A bad agreement on the border is much worse than no agreement at all!” Donald Trump wrote in capital letters on his Truth Social network.
Campaigning in Las Vegas, Nevada, Donald Trump assured that there was “100% probability that there would be a major terrorist attack in the United States” carried out by people who had crossed the border with Mexico . The former president vilified Joe Biden’s project, once again promising to “launch the largest deportation operation in America”, to the cheers of the audience. As the presidential election approaches, Donald Trump hopes to “undermine” Joe Biden’s efforts, writing Politicoin order to deprive the Democratic president of a political victory.
As indicated the Washington Post, Joe Biden signed more executive orders related to immigration than any other issue on his first day in office. Since then, he has taken more than 500 executive actions, already surpassing Donald Trump’s four-year total, according to a recent tally by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI). Last December, 249,785 illegal crossings were recorded along the U.S.-Mexico border, the highest monthly total ever recorded.