Trump and Abbott revive GOP focus on border security in 2024 election

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s contentious new law have reignited Republican efforts to make border security the focus of the 2024 election – elevating the fight over immigration policy to new heights.

The renewed focus on immigration comes at a politically sensitive moment for President Joe Biden, who is negotiating a deal with congressional Republicans on immigration and border policy changes — a GOP demand as part of a broader emergency aid package that will also include funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Already, Biden is facing backlash from key progressive allies over his willingness to make concessions on border policy.

The stakes of the immigration debate — now playing out on Capitol Hill, in courtrooms and on the campaign trail — are enormous. Shifts among Latino voters — who have moved in the GOP’s favor in recent elections in certain key regions — could tip swing states such as Arizona and Nevada in the 2024 election. Meanwhile, Biden must hold together a Democratic coalition that includes moderates concerned about border security and young voters and progressives, who polls have shown are already frustrated with the president.

Trump set off a political firestorm Saturday when he claimed during a New Hampshire campaign speech that immigrants from South America, Africa and Asia were “poisoning the blood of our country” — a remark that drew comparisons to the language of Nazi Germany.

He followed those comments with a pledge Sunday in Nevada to to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.”

Then, on Tuesday night in Iowa, he acknowledged and rejected the comparisons of his language to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” but repeated his claims about immigrants.

“It’s crazy what’s going on. They’re ruining our country. And it’s true, they’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that,” Trump said.

“And I’ve never read ‘Mein Kampf.’ They said, ‘Oh Hitler said that.’ In a much different way.’”

In Texas, Abbott, the third-term Republican governor, on Monday signed into law a measure that will test how far states can go to keep undocumented migrants out.

The new law will make entering Texas illegally a state crime — granting local law enforcement the power to arrest migrants and judges the ability to issue orders to remove them to Mexico. It has sent ripples of fear throughout the Latino community in Texas, which makes up 40% of the state’s population.

Already, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit, claiming that the Texas law is unconstitutional and runs afoul of federal immigration law.

“The bill overrides bedrock constitutional principles and flouts federal immigration law while harming Texans, in particular Brown and Black communities,” Adriana Piñon, legal director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.

Biden’s White House condemned the Texas law on Tuesday, raising doubts about its legality.

“This is an extreme law that will not and does not make the communities in Texas safer. It just doesn’t,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a news briefing.

She called the law “very much in line with what … many Republicans like to do or tend to do, which is demonize immigrants and also dehumanize immigrants.”

The ongoing surge of migration at the US-Mexico border has placed immense pressure on local and federal resources. Abbott and the Biden administration have sparred over some of the state’s measures to curb illegal immigration along the southern border. On Sunday, US Customs and Border Protection announced it would temporarily suspend operations at the international railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, starting Monday, due to a surge in border crossings by migrants.

Border authorities apprehended about 192,000 migrants between ports of entry in November, a 2% increase compared with the 188,000 migrant apprehensions in October, US Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens told CNN.

Democrats signal border concerns

Democrats in recent days have conceded that they see border security as a problem.

“We all know there’s a problem at the border. The president does, Democrats do and we’re going to try to solve that problem consistent with our principles,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

In Arizona — one of the nation’s most important swing states — Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs last week signed an executive order mobilizing the Arizona National Guard to the southern border.

Hobbs’ order said her state “has borne the burden of federal inaction” on border security.

In the past few weeks, the Biden administration has closed ports of entry to either vehicular or pedestrian crossings in Eagle Pass, Texas; Lukeville, Arizona; and San Ysidro, California.

The closure of the Lukeville port of entry, Hobbs’ order said, “has led to an unmitigated humanitarian crisis in the area and has put Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk.”

Still, many progressives are warning of potential backlash from the Democratic base if Biden makes too many concessions to Republicans in the negotiations for a border security and foreign aid package.

“If he does go too far in the Trump direction when it comes to this, it’s going to be felt at the ballot box next year. No doubt about it,” Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California told CNN.

Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are expected to speak this week, according to two sources familiar with discussions, amid the latest surge at the US southern border that has pushed federal resources to the limit.

The US has generally leaned on Mexico to help stem the flow of migrants moving through the Western hemisphere. Last month, Biden and Lopez Obrador met in San Francisco at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, where the two discussed “unprecedented levels of migration,” among other issues.

Trump’s comments spark GOP criticism

It’s not just Democrats who are divided on immigration and border security.

Trump’s claim about migrants “poisoning the blood of our country” drew backlash from some of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — many of whom have similarly called for strict border measures.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who frequently faults Trump for failing to finish the US-Mexico border wall, described the former president’s comments as a “tactical” error.

DeSantis said Trump had given Democrats, who are fractured on the issue, something to seize on and rally the party’s disparate factions.

“Here’s the thing: This border is such a disaster,” DeSantis said Monday following a campaign event in Adel, Iowa. “It’s a huge liability for Biden.”

“To give … the opposition an ability to try to make it about something else, I think, is just a tactical mistake,” he said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was harshest in his condemnation of Trump’s remarks. “He’s disgusting,” Christie said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” while also calling the comments “dog whistling.”

Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” on Wednesday that he, too, was “offended by it, because it has racist overtones.”

“Does bringing in a lot of people at once from a different country, does that put strains on our system, and harm the country to an extent? Yes, it does. But the attacks, on the idea that they pollute our blood, you know, I think are foul,” Barr said.

However, on Capitol Hill, Trump’s remarks received relatively little blowback — and even some encouragement.

Asked for comment, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked his wife, former Trump official Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child.

“Well, it strikes me, that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao secretary of transportation,” the Kentucky Republican said.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has endorsed Trump, urged the former president to be “tougher” in his rhetoric toward immigrants.

“I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that,” Tuberville said, “because have you seen what’s happening at the border? We are being overrun. They’re taking us over.”

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

CNN’s Jack Forrest, Manu Raju, Kit Maher, Asher Moskowitz, Haley Talbot, Kate Sullivan, Priscilla Alvarez, Camila DeChalus, Michael Williams, Rosa Flores, Sara Weisfeldt and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

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