Washington. From illegal immigration to crime: The former president wants to score points against his rival on issues. But there is a problem.
When Donald Trump talks about illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border, no superlative is powerful enough. For the Republican presidential candidate, “the largest invasion in history” is a major reason for the “decline” of the USA. Trump blames President Joe Biden – and thus also his successor Kamala Harris – for having allowed more than 20 million Refugees to have been allowed into the country unchecked across the US-Mexican border.
Among them are thousands of criminals, murderers, rapists and mentally ill people who are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, Trump claims without any evidence – and to the horror of churches and social organizations, he speaks of “animals” and human “garbage”. Even if both Border protection– as well as police authorities assert that asylum seekers are no more criminal than locals: Trump’s horror scenario of an “overrun” nation is taking hold.
Read also: If things continue like this, Kamala Harris can sit back
“Immigration” is consistently the most important single issue in the election campaign, alongside the economy and crime, according to polls. And a majority of voters trust Trump, who has called for the continuation of the construction of a border wall. Mexico and mass deportations of over ten million illegal immigrants, has so far done more on this issue than Kamala Harris.
USA: The number of asylum applications decreased under the Biden administration
But what if the premise is no longer true, if the Immigration pressure has rapidly declined? With the first TV debate between Trump and Harris on September 10, Trump may be threatening a new EmbarrassmentThe reason: In Trump’s last month in office in January 2021 alone, according to the US Border Patrol, 75,000 asylum seekers were registered along the 3,200-kilometer-long border. For comparison: In July of this year, the number was 57,000.
Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance was recently in Arizona to criticize the border policy of the Biden/Harris administration. The number of border crossings in July 2024 was lower than in Donald Trump’s last month in office. © Getty Images via AFP | Anna Moneymaker
Since February of this year, when 140,000 people had to be handled, there have been fewer and fewer monthly arrivals between San Diego in the west and Brownsville in the south of Texas. illegal Immigration has been given. The situation in reception centers and border communities is correspondingly more relaxed, report mayors from Texas and Arizona.
Migration experts cite the introduction of a mobile phone app with which refugees must register with the US authorities before submitting their asylum application as reasons for this. Otherwise, they will be sent back immediately. In parallel, the Bidengovernment has agreed with its Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on tight-knit measures to slow the influx of poverty refugees from Latin and Central America to the US border.
“Trump would rather campaign than solve the problem”
With the help of checkpoints in the country, tens of thousands of refugees were recently arrested and sent back to the Guatemalan border by bus. Department of Homeland Security Experts expect that the new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum would work with a possible US President Harris “in a more calm and goal-oriented manner” than would be possible under Trump. He has repeatedly threatened the neighboring country with the deployment of the US military, for example against drug cartels.
Trump wants to send soldiers to the Mexican border
The reduction in illegal immigration is not overestimated in democratic circles. The influx could be caused by political upheavals such as in Venezuela increase again, they say. At the same time, they emphasize that Trump in the spring caused a bipartisan reform of immigration policy, which foresaw, for example, the accelerated repatriation of refugees who were not entitled to asylum, to fail. “Trump preferred to use the problem to campaign for election rather than solve it constructively.”
Capital Inside by Jörg Quoos, Editor-in-Chief of the FUNKE Central Editorial Office
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Kamala Harris’ campaign team has recognized the weakness. At rallies, the Vice President recently announced that Draft law in the event of an election victory in January next year. And the Democratic candidate may also be tempted to take advantage of the fact that Trump’s immigration record was, contrary to his portrayal (“the safest border ever”), in reality not so great.
Trump’s record on crime is also disastrous
According to research by the National Foundation for American Policy Analysis, the number of temporary detentions at the border rose from 400,000 in 2016, when President Barack Obama left office, to a whopping 850,000 in 2019, when Trump was fully in charge. A similar discrepancy is evident in Trump’s other favorite issue, crime registered. The Republican constantly creates the impression that Americans are easy prey for criminals thanks to liberal justice and police.
Mass shootings like the one in the Bronx in New York City and other serious violent crimes have recently declined significantly in the USA. © IMAGO/NurPhoto | IMAGO/Kyle Mazza
The official statistics contradict this: Already in 2021, 2022 and 2023 Murdersserious assaults, robberies and rapes have decreased. In the first half of 2024, 54 of 69 major cities such as Washington, Dallas, Boston and Altlanta again reported a sometimes drastic decline.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris claim to have made America safer and want to increase the number of police officers and new Gun laws build on that. Trump’s horror picture that the United States is sinking into crime has “nothing to do with reality.” A fact to which the Republican candidate has not yet given a well-founded answer.
