Trump Pledges to Increase Enforcement Against Migrants During Visit to Mexico Border

Donald Trump brought his presidential campaign to the border with Mexico on Sunday, emphasizing his tough stance on immigration that defined his first term in the White House.

The Republican leader claimed that border security had deteriorated under President Joe Biden, with “gangs of thugs” entering the US.

“We’re going to take control of that border and make it the most secure border in our history,” Trump stated.

He spoke to a supportive group of border guards and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a like-minded Republican who has backed Trump’s 2024 campaign.

In recent weeks, the former president has escalated his campaign rhetoric, warning that undocumented migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and referring to his political opponents as “vermin.”

‘The enemy’

He used similar language on Sunday, describing some migrants as “the enemy” and predicting that 15 million undocumented migrants would be in the country by the end of Biden’s first term — a number larger than estimates by most non-governmental groups.

Abbott, like Trump, has pursued hard-line immigration policies, including installing a 1,000-foot floating barrier in the Rio Grande that critics say endangers migrants attempting to cross.

The Texas legislature recently passed a bill that would make entry into the state without papers a crime punishable by up to two years in jail.

The bill would also allow Texas officers to arrest anyone they believed was in the state without proper documentation, a power that critics say is likely to be abused.

Abbott has promised to sign the measure into law.

The Trump campaign has made it clear that if the real estate tycoon returns to the White House, he will implement a tough crackdown on the undocumented, reportedly including large detention camps and mass deportations.

‘Radically anti-immigrant’

Texas has been a consistently conservative stronghold for Trump as he looks ahead to the 2024 elections, and he holds significant leads both there and nationwide over his Republican rivals.

Trump and Abbott blame Biden for the current migrant crisis, as thousands of people flow into the country from Latin American countries plagued by crime, poverty, and violence.

How Biden handles the crisis could play a crucial role in the 2024 election.

The president met Friday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco, and thanked the Mexican leader for his “cooperation” over the migrant crisis.

Lopez Obrador, in turn, thanked Biden for being the first recent president “who has not built walls.”

But the Mexican leader criticized the Texas border bill, saying it would lead to family separation, discrimination, and racial profiling.

Rights groups have also strongly criticized the bill.

If enacted, the measure would be one of the “most radical anti-immigrant bills ever passed by any state,” said Oni Blair, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union’s Texas chapter.