Five months exactly before the presidential election on November 5, where he will seek a second term against Donald Trump, Joe Biden tackled this June 4 the hot topic of immigration, an area in which he is hardly at his advantage : the Democratic President is regularly accused of laxity by the Republican opposition, while 6.4 million people have illegally crossed the border between Mexico and the United States since the start of his mandate.
December 2023 broke all records with nearly 250,000 people arrested by the US Border Patrol, the border police, immediately after crossing the border which stretches 3,145 km from Texas to California. The rate fell in March to 140,000 crossings, not the critics. Immigration is a “very important” subject for 57% of Americans as the election approaches, according to the Pew Research institute.
The cynicism of Donald Trump
The decree signed this Tuesday at the White House establishes thresholds. As soon as the arrests of illegal immigrants exceed 2,500 on a daily average, migrants intercepted outside legal border posts are denied any asylum procedure. This system would remain in force until 15 days after the number of daily arrests falls to 1,500.
This mechanism is inspired by a bipartisan agreement, forged in January in Congress by Democratic senators Chris Murphy, Republican James Lankford and independent Kyrsten Sinema. Biden had promised to enact it as soon as it was adopted. But Trump torpedoed it, by prohibiting right-wing parliamentarians from voting for it: the Republican wants immigration to continue to poison the President until the elections. A cynicism that Joe Biden will not fail to denounce on June 27, during the first televised debate between the two candidates.
