Donald Trump returned to the U.S.-Mexico border for a visit Sunday and was endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas as the former president campaigns on a hard-line immigration agenda that would be far more expansive than the policies he pursued during his first term in the White House.
“We need a president who’s going to secure the border,” Abbott, a longtime ally and fellow border hawk, told a crowd of about 150 at an airport hangar in Edinburg. “We need Donald J. Trump back as our president of the United States of America.”
Trump, the party’s front-runner for the 2024 nomination, took the stage afterward and thanked Abbott, saying that in defeating Democratic President Joe Biden next year, “I’m going to make your job much easier.”
“You’ll be able to focus on other things in Texas,” Trump said, speaking in a town that is about 30 miles from the Hidalgo Port of Entry crossing with Mexico.
He had earlier provided food to troops, members of the Texas National Guard, and others who would be spending Thanksgiving at the border. Tacos were distributed by Trump and Abbott, and the former president shook hands and smiled for photos.
“What you do is incredible, and you want it to be done right,” Trump told them.
Abbott said about the Guard members and Texas troopers who are stationed at the border: “They should not be here at this time. They should be at home.” He said that ”the only reason they are here is because we have a president of the United States of America who is not securing our border.”
Trump has been laying out immigration proposals that would mark a dramatic escalation of the approach he used in office and that drew alarms from civil rights activists and numerous court challenges.
“On my first day back in the White House, I will terminate every open-borders policy of the Biden administration. I will stop the invasion on our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” he said in Iowa Saturday.
He also wants to:
— revive and expand his controversial travel ban, which initially targeted seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump’s initial executive order was fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld what Trump complained was a “watered-down” version that included travellers from North Korea and some Venezuelan officials.
— begin new “ideological screening” for all immigrants, aiming to bar “Christian-hating communists and Marxists” and “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs” from entering the United States. “Those who come to and join our country must love our country,” he has said.
— bar those who support Hamas. “If you empathise with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified,” Trump says. “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. If you support Hamas or any ideology that’s having to do with that or any of the other really sick thoughts that go through people’s minds—very dangerous thoughts—you’re disqualified.”
— deport immigrants living in the country who harbour “jihadist sympathies” and send immigration agents to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to identify violators. He would target foreign nationals on college campuses and revoke the student visas of those who express anti-American or antisemitic views.
— invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove from the United States all known or suspected gang members and drug dealers. That law was used to justify internment camps in World War II. It allows the president to unilaterally detain and deport people who are not U.S. citizens.
— end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship by signing an executive order his first day in office that would codify a legally untested reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. Under his order, only children with at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent would be eligible for a passport, a Social Security number, and other benefits.
— terminate all work permits and cut off funding for shelter and transportation for people who are in the country illegally.
— build more of the wall along the border, crack down on legal asylum-seekers, and reimplement measures such as Title 42, which allowed Trump to turn away immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
— press Congress to pass a law so anyone caught trafficking women or children would receive the death penalty.
— shift federal law enforcement agents, including FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration personnel, to immigration enforcement, and reposition at the southern border thousands of troops currently stationed overseas. “Before we defend the borders of foreign countries, we must secure the borders of our country,” he said.
Both as a presidential candidate and as president, Trump has visited the border frequently. He visited Laredo, Texas in July 2015 as part of his 2016 campaign, highlighting how his immigration policies helped him garner support from the Republican base and media attention.
Abbott’s strategy now revolves on the border, and the border is the focus of a growing immigration dispute with the Biden administration. The three-term governor has authorised razor wire along the banks of the Río Grande, approved billion-dollar new border wall construction, and bused thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities around the country.
Abbott is expected to soon sign what would be one of Texas’ most aggressive measures to date: a law that allows police officers to arrest migrants suspected of entering the country illegally and empowers judges to effectively deport them. The measure is a dramatic challenge to the U.S. government’s authority over immigration. It has already drawn rebuke from Mexico.
Still, the Texas GOP’s hard right has not always embraced Abbott. Trump posted on his social media platform earlier this year that the governor was “MISSING IN ACTION!” after Republicans voted to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump ally. Abbott was also booed at a 2022 Trump rally.
But Abbott’s navigation within the GOP has built him broad support in Texas, where he has outperformed more strident Republicans down-ballot and helped the GOP make crucial inroads with Hispanic voters.
Democrats tried to use the trip to portray Trump’s plans as extreme.
“Donald Trump is going after immigrants, our rights, our safety, and our democracy. And that is what really was on the ballot last year,” Biden reelection campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said on a conference call with reporters.
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Pollings shows many voters aren’t satisfied with the Biden administration’s handling of the border.
A Marquette Law School poll of registered voters conducted in late September gave Trump a 24-point advantage over Biden on handling immigration and border security issues—52% to 28%.
