Biden, Trump Spar Over Immigration

June 28, 2024

The first 2024 Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will go down in history as nothing less than bizarre. With many rules and no audience, it was a rather quiet, yet memorable, affair. Pundits are highlighting Biden’s poor debate performance and Trump’s looseness with the facts.

Immigration was predicted to be an issue in the debate and that proved to be the case.

Among other things, Biden and Trump exchanged barbs over each other’s response to immigration legislation during the debate. After Biden highlighted his push for bipartisan border legislation, which died in Congress, Trump claimed his administration has left the U.S. “had the safest border in the history of our country.”

Here are some stray observations.

I was disappointed that there was no real immigration policy discussion. The former president simply repeatedly responded to any question (including those not about immigration) by claiming that the Biden administration had “opened” the borders and that immigrants were flooding into the country. He repeatedly invoked immigrants as criminals even though social science studies show consistently that immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens.

I do think that Biden will regret using the terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens” in some of his responses; he previously was criticized for talking of “illegals.” Biden also was mistaken to raise immigrants and crime early in the debate., which gave Trump an opening that he exploited repeatedly.

At several points, Trump claimed that African Americans and Hispanics have lost jobs to immigrants. However, there is no evidence that African Americans would be better off if there were no immigrant workers. Efforts to pit immigrants against African Americans has a long history in the United States. Economists almost all say that immigrants are an overall benefit to the economy and all Americans.

It was telling that, in response to a policy question about helping people suffering from addition, Trump blamed immigrants bringing drugs into the United States. He did not mention the role of big pharma in the opioid crisis. Trump instead blamed it all on the border even though there is no evidence that immigrants had anything to do with the opioid crisis. Trump also responded to the addiction question by chastising Biden for reinstituting “catch and release” of immigrants who are apprehended. What does that have to do with the opioid crisis?

Trump did not really respond to the question about whether he supported a mass deportation campaign. In the past, he has stated support (without using its given name) for a mass removal campaign known as Operation Wetback conducted in military fashion by the Eisenhower administration. In that campaign, nearly a million U.S. citizens and immigrants of Mexican ancestry were removed from the countr6y.

Claim 1: The U.S. Southern border is open. Short answer: As Joe Biden might say, “Malarkey!”

Claim 2: Biden’s executive order has reduced illegal migration. Short answer: A half truth at best.

Claim 3: Migrants crossing are committing crimes. Short answer: “In fact, a study by Northwestern University examining a 150-year period found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.”

Other reports on immigration in the Biden/Trump debate: The Hill, Axios.