WASHINGTON ( TND ) — A chaotic scene at the U. S. Mexico border has once again drawn attention to a prominent issue in the 2024 presidential election as the White House tries to defend its handling of the border amid an onslaught of Republican attacks on the president’s handling of the issue and growing concerns from voters.
Immigration has made its way up objective addresses for voters at the start of 2024 after years of raised crossings and a series of higher- report crimes involving migrants who entered the country illegally.
Some poll has found emigration is the major topic on voters ‘ minds, eclipsing the market for the first time in years, adding stress to President Joe Biden’s election campaign to display Americans it is doing something to address the problems. Even when it does not appear in as the major concern, voters have given it more significance than other important issues like contraception or threats to politics.
A Suffolk University poll released last week found immigration was the No. 2 issue for voters with 24 % of voters ranking it as their main priority, behind the economy at 29 %.
Whether that trend continues into November is another question, as the economy and inflation are more clearly visible to people regardless of where they live as they see paychecks, grocery and gasoline prices, and evaluate their own financial situations.
” I do n’t think we have precedent for immigration outranking the economy as a major issue”, said Chris Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton. ” There’s concern about immigration, but there’s not really a track record of that being a major issue. A lot of it depends on whether people see immigration as an issue that’s directly affecting their lives”.
The latest issue is video of a large crowd of migrants were able to breach the U. S. Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, by rushing a wire barricade and eventually breaking through. Border Patrol agents said all the people who were at the breached gate were taken to a processing center and that law enforcement was quickly able to gain control of the area.
While the chaotic scene was contained, it is another incident that is likely to be brought up frequently as the general election campaign kicks into gear on an issue that Biden and Democrats have traditionally trailed Republicans on when it comes to faith from voters on their ability to handle.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is actively challenging the Biden administration in courts over its immigration policies, quickly pointed to the incident as an indicative problem of the president’s handling of the border.
” The surge today in El Paso is the direct result of the unsustainable chaos President Biden has unleashed on the border”, Abbott said in a statement.
Happening at the same time is the legal limbo of a controversial Texas law that would allow police officers to arrest people who are suspected of entering the country illegally and makes entering the state without following immigration laws a state crime. An appeals court put the law on hold as it was set to take effect just hours after the Supreme Court allowed it go through.
Congress has been unable to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill for decades amid partisan disagreements over how to best handle the situation at the border and the country’s immigration policies. A bipartisan bill passed the Senate earlier this year after months of negotiation but has stalled out in the GOP- led House amid complaints from some Republican lawmakers that the compromise bill does not go far enough to address the problems at the border.
While the incident has prompted many calls from lawmakers to address the situation at the border, it is unlikely to lead to action from Congress with the stalled bill or other legislative solutions.
Biden has tried to pressure GOP lawmakers to pass the Senate bill as part of a broader effort from his campaign and other Democrats to flip the issue back on Republicans for stalling the bill. It’s unclear how effective that strategy will be, with incidents like the one in El Paso potentially bolstering Republican arguments of an open border with a chaotic scene that could break through to people more than data showing fewer crossings and arrests as of late.
Government data has shown that border arrests were significantly down to start the year, with the number of arrests in the busiest section for illegal crossings in the Rio Grande Valley reaching the lowest levels since June of 2020. Arrests for illegal crossings were also 50 % lower in January than they were in December.
” This speaks to an inherent advantage for those who are being more critical and trying to argue that there is an emergency, a real crisis at the border, is that when an incident like this happens, you can point to and say,’ see, I told you so,'” Devine said.
