WASHINGTON ( AP )— President , Joe Biden , tried to address a major liability for his reelection campaign by taking executive action to , significantly restrict asylum , at the U. S. Mexico border.
But it’s unclear whether his work will be enough to change the minds of voters who , have increasingly voiced alarm , over the , history flood of migrants , on his view. Pollsters have identified border security and immigration as the major issues of the election year, along with former US President Donald Trump and his strategy.
Johnson has shifted far to the proper on immigration since his winning battle four years ago, when he , criticized Trump’s immigration priorities , and promised he would recover hospital privileges. Many Democrats then acknowledge that Biden is in a completely different political reality as opposed to border security and as a result of opposition from Trump’s policies as president.
According to Sue- Ann DiVito, a 61-year-old agent from the Philadelphia district of Jenkintown who became an immigration recommend under the Trump administration, Republicans have been effective in infusing anti-immigrant messages into communities like it, making some of her friends who are Democrats concerned about the large number of people entering the United States.
” I think that’s why we’ve seen people who had usually back immigrants talk less now,” DiVito said.
Democrats and Latinos are currently facing a problem for Biden.
Throughout the political campaign, the border has been a major concern for citizens.
According to , Gallup’s regular information, Americans named emigration as the major issue facing the country in February, March, and April, surpassing even the promote who cited the market despite consistently higher rates. Immigration was ranked less prominently in Gallup’s May surveys as the focus turned to Trump’s legal test and as the number of illegal crossings decreased. The problem remained closely tied to the state and the economy as what voters believed to be the most pressing issue facing the country.
Most Americans, 56 %, say Biden’s administration has hurt the land on the issue of immigration and frontier protection, according to an AP- NORC surveys conducted in April. That’s far higher than the number — 37 % — who said the same about Trump’s time in office.
Yet among Democrats, just about 3 in 10 say that Biden’s administration has done more to help the nation on immigration and border protection, while about the same discuss say it has hurt. Nearly 9 in 10 Republicans say Trump’s presidency helped on this issue.
In contrast to Biden’s, Hispanic adults are also more likely to believe that Trump’s presidency improved the nation’s immigration and border security. In March, about half of Hispanic adults claimed that Biden’s administration had had an impact on border security and immigration, which is a potentially alarming figure as Trump’s campaign attempts to erode Democrats ‘ favor among Hispanic voters.
” President Biden had no choice. He was aware of what was happening at the border. The numbers were higher than ever in terms of people trying to come here to seek asylum, and he knew he had to do something”, said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist.
Long-time pollster Frank Luntz, who has previously worked for Republicans, claimed immigration appeared to be having an unprecedented impact earlier this spring across the political spectrum.
He stated that he thinks Biden is especially vulnerable when there are African American men under the age of 40 who are concerned about newcomers competing for jobs and Latinos who may dislike those who enter illegally.
He said on Tuesday,” Immigration matters so much to so many because it is a living, breathing illustration of Washington’s failure to solve what everyone else in America sees as a crisis.” ” Biden’s decision seems too little and too late. The public does n’t think he cares, and therefore thinks he does n’t get it”.
Trump’s record includes family separation
Since launching his 2016 bid with a speech in which he vowed to build a southern border wall and cast immigrants from Mexico as criminals and rapists, Trump has campaigned on the border and immigration.
While in office, his administration  , separated immigrant parents and children , to try to deter families from illegally crossing the border, a measure that , drew widespread condemnation.
Border crossings reached record highs, though they were significantly below the levels they had under Biden, before sharply declining as the COVID- 19 pandemic started.
Trump has heightened his already alarmist rhetoric as he seeks a second term in the White House this year, accusing Biden of starting a “border bloodbath” and highlighting cases of women and children being killed by immigrants who have entered the country illegally. He ‘s , vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation , in U. S. history if elected again.
His campaign made a quick attempt to portray Biden’s strategy as ineffective and one that would result in thousands of migrant crossings each week.
” This executive order from Biden can only be understood as a pro- invasion, pro- illegal migration executive order”, said former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, who orchestrated some of Trump’s most hard- line immigration policies, during a call with reporters organized by the campaign ahead of Biden’s announcement.
Trump pollster John McLaughlin said the campaign thinks the issue has resonance with a particular audience, particularly” safety moms,” suburban, college-educated women concerned about crime and the safety of their families.
” There’s a sense of insecurity”, he said. ” It’s not just the border communities, it’s all over the country”.
Trump has always used obscene language in election campaigns on the border. The difference is now, in the opinion of Trump campaign aides and pollsters, the reality that voters are constantly seeing.
According to studies of available data, crime is down overall and immigrants, even those who entered the country illegally, commit fewer crimes than those who were born here. Local news reports in Democratic-led cities like New York were flooded earlier this year with images of migrants fighting with police and expressed concern about tight city resources and budgets to deal with an influx of people from the border.
Trump’s campaign and the conservative media also seized on high-profile incidents like the death of Laken Riley, a nursing student. A , Venezuelan man in the U. S. illegally , has pleaded not guilty to charges in her death.
splits in the Democratic base
Some left-leaning lawmakers and immigration advocates that form a significant part of his coalition criticized Biden’s actions as a return to the measures that marked Trump’s presidency, as shown by Biden’s announcement.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was “profoundly disappointed”. Jayapal pushed the administration to take action that would help immigrants who are already citizens of the United States during a press conference with immigration advocates outside the Capitol.
Jayapal, D- Wash., said Tuesday’s order “means that we have people, desperate people seeking asylum who should be able to apply, and yet they will not be able to”.
Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who has been involved in the Biden campaign’s outreach to Latino communities, cast the order as a revival of” Trump’s asylum ban” in a release Tuesday.
You can construct a wall any height you like. You can restrict the number of times you can ask for asylum. According to Padilla, it wo n’t be able to sustainably lower the number of visitors to the United States.
Other Democrats praised Biden’s action as a necessary step to address voters ‘ concerns and take control of a southern border that has occasionally been turbulent in recent years.
” The president is saying that,’ I hear you, I know this is an issue, and I’m taking action,'” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, who has helped form a group of House Democrats focused on border security.
Suozzi, who won a special election in New York this year with a campaign calling for tougher immigration enforcement measures, also called for action to assist people who are already here.
DiVito, the immigrant advocate in swing- state Pennsylvania, tried to square the difference from a Democratic perspective.
Trump will turn out to be a million things worse in November, according to Biden, who has a choice. ” And we all know this”.
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Michelle L. Price, Amelia Thomson DeVeaux, and Linley Sanders from the Associated Press contributed to this article.