David Frum: “Mexico’s president gets to determine whether an immigration crisis dominates headlines in a U.S. election year.”
Quote of the Day
“Mass deportations are going to start, if you don’t like that, then don’t vote for President Trump.”
— Steve Bannon, on his podcast.
Biden-Trump Border Visits Revealed a Deeper Divide
New York Times: “Rarely do the current and former commanders in chief arrive on the same scene on the same day to present such sharply different approaches to an issue as intractable as immigration. Even rarer still was the reality that the two men are most likely hurtling toward a rematch in November.”
“But the dueling border events were about something even more fundamental than immigration policy. They spoke to the competing visions of power and presidency that are at stake in 2024 — of autocracy and the value of democracy itself.”
Trump Says He’ll Use Local Police for Mass Deportations
Donald Trump said he “will use local police to implement his plan for the mass deportation of undocumented migrants if he’s elected,“ Axios reports.
Said Trump: “We have to deport a lot of people, and they have to start immediately.”
Trump told Sean Hannity that he would give “immunity” to police “to give the job they have to do” and said the officers understand who the migrants are.
Biden Tells Trump: ‘Join Me’
“In a stunning moment today, Joe Biden used his second U.S.-Mexico border visit as president to urge Donald Trump to work with him on passing the toughest immigration law in decades,” Axios reports.
“Biden campaigned on ending Trump-era border policies. Now he’s accusing Republicans of standing in the way of his efforts to halt a historic migrant crisis.”
Said Biden: “Instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“People who don’t speak languages. We have languages coming in to our country, nobody that speaks those languages. They’re truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them.”
— Donald Trump, while making a visit to the southern border.
Biden Tests an Opening on Border Security
New York Times: “Republicans have long had an edge politically on the issue, with the G.O.P. advantage swelling even larger of late. In the fall of 2020, Mr. Trump was more trusted on immigration by a sizable 16 percentage points, according to NBC News polling at the time. That margin has more than doubled to 35 percentage points as of this January — the largest advantage either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump had on any of the nine issues tested.”
“But Biden allies believe the recent decision by Republican congressional leaders — at Mr. Trump’s urging — to abandon a potential bipartisan border deal has provided the party a rare opening to cut into that deficit.”
The Political Theater of Border Visits
New York Times: “As the immigration debate grows increasingly polarized, a trip along the 2,000-mile frontier has become a compulsory bit of political theater for leaders who want to show they care about immigration. The imagery at the border — the wall, the Border Patrol officers, the crowded detention facilities — serves as a potent backdrop for drawing attention to the crisis or, increasingly, for seizing on the issue to attack political opponents.”
“On Thursday, both of those factors will be at play when President Biden and Mr. Trump make dueling trips to the U.S.-Mexico border.”
USA Today: Tired of photo ops, mayors and governors demand real action from Biden’s border trip.
Arizona GOP Moves Bill to Legalize Killing of Migrants
“Arizona Republicans want to let ranchers in southern Arizona legally shoot and kill undocumented immigrants who cross their land,” the Arizona Mirror reports.
“A bill moving through the state House of Representatives would make changes to the state’s existing ‘Castle Doctrine’ law, which permits Arizonans to use deadly force against people who are trespassing or breaking into their home.”
Immigration Surges to Top of Most Important Problem List
Gallup: “Significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%) than did a month ago (20%). Immigration has now passed the government as the most often cited problem, after the two issues tied for the top position the past two months. The government ranked first each month from January through November 2023.”
“In the latest poll, 20% of Americans name the government as the most important problem, followed by the economy (12%) and inflation (11%). Immigration is the only issue that has shown meaningful change in the past month.”
Scott Perry Floats Nixing the State of the Union
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) suggested that House Republicans rescind President Biden’s State of the Union invitation for March 7 over immigration and border policies, Politico reports.
Said Perry: “We need to use every single point of leverage. He comes at the invitation of Congress, and Republicans are in control of the House. There’s no reason that we need to invite him to get more propaganda.”
Big Majority Say Border Security Is a Serious Issue
A new Monmouth poll finds more than 8 in 10 Americans see illegal immigration as either a very serious (61%) or somewhat serious (23%) problem.
A majority of Americans support building a border wall for the first time since Monmouth started asking this question in 2015.
And nearly half say the bipartisan border deal that was blocked in the U.S. Senate earlier this month is not tough enough on illegal immigration.
Trump’s Deportation Plans Modeled on ‘Inhumane’ Program
“After hundreds of thousands of Mexican migrants were put on buses, planes and boats during the scorching summer of 1954 and sent across the U.S. border into often-unfamiliar parts of Mexico, the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service declared the border ‘secured,'” the Washington Post reports.
“But the military-style campaign, which used the same slur in its name — ‘Operation Wetback’ — tore families apart and forcibly uprooted people in the name of securing the border. And sometimes, those efforts turned deadly.”
“Now, former president Donald Trump is using the Eisenhower-era operation as a blueprint for his vision, which he pledges will be ‘the largest domestic deportation operation in American history’ to remove the estimated 10.5 million undocumented people in the United States — of which, two-thirds have lived in the country for more than a decade.”
Biden Will Make Border Visit on the Same Day as Trump
“President Biden is planning to make a rare visit to the southern border on Thursday, traveling to Brownsville, Texas, on the same day that Donald Trump has already scheduled a border trip,” the New York Times reports.
“The plans underscore the urgency now propelling the Biden team on immigration, which has become one of his most serious political liabilities.”
Ken Paxton Accuses Biden of Working with Drug Cartels
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the Biden administration of conspiring with drug cartels to create the problems at the southern border, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Said Paxton: “The very first day Joe Biden came into office, he announced there would be no more deportations… Why would he announce that?” Paxton asked Saturday night. “He was sending a signal to the cartels to get these people here as fast as they can. He was running logistics for the cartels.”
Biden Mulls Executive Action to Turn Back Migrants
“The Biden administration is considering taking unilateral action without Congress to make it harder for migrants to pass the initial screening for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly deport recently arrived migrants who don’t meet the criteria,” NBC News reports.
Trump and Allies Plot Militarized Mass Deportations
Washington Post: “Trump pledges that as president he would immediately launch ‘the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.’ As a model, he points to an Eisenhower-era program known as ‘Operation Wetback,’ using a derogatory slur for Mexican migrants. The operation used military tactics to round up and remove migrant workers, sometimes transporting them in dangerous conditions that led to some deaths.”
“Former administration officials and policy experts said staging an even larger operation today would face a bottleneck in detention space — a problem that Trump adviser Stephen Miller and other allies have proposed addressing by building mass deportation camps.”
Kristi Noem Deploys Troops to Border ‘Warzone’
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem joined a list of Republican state leaders who have said they will deploy troops to the country’s southern border, which she called a “warzone” in a post announcing the move, The Hill reports.
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