Republicans seize on immigration as border crossings surge – The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) Delegation trips to the border. Apocalyptic warnings. A flurry of news conferences.
Republicans still divided over former President Donald Trumps legacy are seizing on his signature campaign issue, turning their focus to immigration as they try to regain the political upper hand.
Faced with President Joe Bidens early popularity, good news about vaccinations, and Americans embrace of the COVID-19 relief bill Washington Republicans opposed, the GOP is leaning in on the highly charged issue amid a spike in border crossings. They hope immigration can unite the party heading into next years elections, when control of Congress is at stake.
Heading into the midterms, I think that Republicans are increasingly realizing that this can be one of the most potent issues, both to motivate our voters, but equally as important, to appeal to swing voters especially in suburban swing districts who voted for Democrats in 2020, said former Trump aide Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration policies. He said the issue has been a subject of discussion in his recent conversations with lawmakers as child border crossings have surged, straining U.S. facilities.
The situation at the southern border is complex. Since Bidens inauguration, the country has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials, with 18,945 family members and 9,297 unaccompanied children encountered in February an increase of 168% and 63% from the month before, according to the Pew Research Center. That creates an enormous logistical challenge, since children, in particular, require higher standards of care and coordination across agencies.
Still, the encounters of both unaccompanied minors and families remain lower than at various points during the Trump administration, including in spring 2019. That May, authorities encountered more than 55,000 migrant children, including 11,500 unaccompanied minors, and around 84,500 migrants traveling in family units.
But that hasnt stopped Republicans from seizing on the issue, led by Trump himself. They blame Biden, who has been deeply critical of Trumps approach, for rolling back many of the former presidents hard-line deterrence policies. And they liken Bidens new, kinder tone to an invitation to would-be border crossers.
Theyre destroying our country. People are coming in by the hundreds of thousands, warned Trump in an interview Tuesday night with Fox News Channel. And, frankly, our country cant handle it. It is a crisis like we have rarely had and, certainly, we have never had on the border.
Its more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak, said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who led a delegation of a dozen fellow House Republicans to El Paso, Texas, on Monday.
This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration, he said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a potential 2024 presidential candidate who is planning to lead his own Senate delegation tour to the Texas-Mexico border next Friday, accused the administration of having, in effect, issued an invitation for unaccompanied children to come to this country.
Even Sen. Mitt Romney, one of Trumps most prominent Republican critics, faulted Bidens moves, including the halting of construction of Trumps signature border wall project.
Whats happening at our southern border is a real crisis, and the Administration is making it worse by unlawfully freezing border wall funding appropriated by Congress, Romney tweeted after signing onto a letter with 39 other Republican senators criticizing the new approach to the border.
Democrats and immigration activists see it differently. They deride the policies Trump implemented to deter asylum as cruel and inhumane and an abdication of the countrys humanitarian responsibilities. That includes the decision to forcibly separate more than 3,000 children from their parents, with no system in place to reunite them.
But policies like Remain in Mexico, which forced asylum seekers to wait across the border as their cases were being adjudicated, and the expulsion of unaccompanied children were effective, and the number of migrants crossing the southern border declined precipitously, further slowed by the pandemic.
Beds were taken offline and staff downsized even as immigration experts on both sides of the aisle and career Homeland Security officials cautioned the numbers would likely begin to rise again once the pandemic subsided.
Advocates also note that apprehensions of single adults have been spiking since April 2020, long before Trump left office. And they accuse the last administration of enacting policies that clogged the immigration system making it take longer to move people through the system and failing to build capacity when numbers began rising. Biden transition officials, for instance, urged the outgoing administration to increase capacity, but were met with inaction. Miller said career officials theyd chosen to work with the incoming administration warned numbers would rise exponentially if policies were reversed.
This was purposeful. They made it harder for the process to work efficiently ... theres no question, said Peter Boogaard of FWD.us, a pro-immigration reform group. The Trump administration did everything in their power for four years to make the already broken immigration system as cumbersome and ineffective as possible. And once they lost, they went out of their way to do as little as humanly possible to make sure the next administration was set up to succeed on this at all.
In an interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday, Biden defended his handling of the situation. He said his administration was working with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to add more bed space, putting together new systems for connecting arriving children with relatives already in the country, and setting up a system for people to apply for asylum in their own countries.
In the meantime, he urged those considering the journey to stay put. Yes, I can say quite clearly: Dont come over, he said. Dont leave your town or city or community.
In the meantime, Republicans see Biden as boxed-in politically, with limited options for dealing with the border.
The administration has said that basically, everything that we did you name the policy ... they said that all of them are fill-in-the-blank adjective. Theyve described them in the most incendiary and condemnatory fashion possible, said Miller. And obviously my view is, of course, the opposite. But the point that Im making is when you do that you give yourself no room to adjust course. ... You leave yourself nowhere to go.
Theyre kind of stuck in a corner, agreed Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies think tank, which advocates on behalf of more restrictive immigration policies. Because Biden ran as the anti-Trump, he argued, the president has few options for deterring future migrants.
And thats why youre seeing so much glee, in some respect, he said. It is a kind of delicious irony that Bidens having to reopen detention centers that Trump had closed because he succeeded in shutting down the traffic.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump ally, said he expects the border to become a top issue if the numbers continue to grow.
If they dont control this, itll be a huge issue this year, and its an issue that gets you into public health, into the issue of defending America and whether there are borders, he said.
___ Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
See the article here:
Republicans seize on immigration as border crossings surge - The Associated Press
- Republicans toe Trump line even in aftermath of deadly Texas floods - The Guardian - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Opinion | How Republicans can defy history and survive the midterms - The Washington Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- What the Big, Beautiful Bill Reveals About Republicans - Slate Magazine - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Are Republicans bowing to Trump even more than they used to? - KCRW - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- How Republicans sidelined the health care industry and pushed through historic Medicaid cuts - STAT - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Republicans urge US universities to cut ties with 'nefarious' Chinese-backed scholarship program - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Full List of Republicans Who Voted To Slash Weather Forecasting Funding - Newsweek - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Republicans are already getting hammered over the OBBB - Punchbowl News - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Will Republicans in Virginia pay a price for the One Big Beautiful Bill? Here's what the math shows. - Cardinal News - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- These Republicans fought for green energy tax credits. Trumps latest order could threaten them - Deseret News - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'Nefarious mechanism': Republicans issue stern warning to US universities against Chinese scholarship pro - Times of India - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Republicans Are Already Licking Their Lips at the Chance of Another Reconciliation Bill - NOTUS - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Republicans say 'big, beautiful bill' will address states with high SNAP payment error, including Colorado - Denver7 - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Opinion | Everyone Hates This Bill. Dan Osborn Could Make Republicans Pay for It. - The New York Times - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 'Big, Beautiful Bill': Which House Republicans voted against the bill? - FOX 5 DC - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 2 Ohio Republicans taking on their own party to protect access to marijuana - News 5 Cleveland WEWS - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Republicans just cut Medicaid. Will it cost them control of Congress? - Politico - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- News Analysis: The healthcare cuts approved by Trump, Republicans go well beyond Medicaid - Los Angeles Times - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- People Are Saying We Might Not Even Make It To The Midterm Election After Elizabeth Warren Tried To Give Hope About Republicans Having To "Face... - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Fake Weather, Fake Flooding: Republicans Are Spreading A Bizarre Conspiracy Theory After The Deadly Texas Floods - HuffPost - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Trump & Congressional Republicans Big Ugly Bill Will Hurt American Families - New Democrat Coalition (.gov) - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- What the Republicans New Policy Bill Means for Higher Education - The New York Times - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Republicans used to be the fiscally conservative party, but look at us now - Idaho Capital Sun - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Trump Goes on a Charm Offensive as He Woos Holdout Republicans - The New York Times - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- U.S. Rep. Castor Statement on Republicans Big Ugly Bill That Will Inflict Outsized Harm & Raise Costs on Floridians - U.S. Representative Kathy... - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Opinion | Republicans may be cooking up a mess in Texas - The Washington Post - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Republicans, Democrats start gaming out Trump's tax-cut bill hit to 2026 elections - Reuters - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Republicans Pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Ahead of the July 4 Deadline - Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- These Republicans Savaged Their Partys Bill, Then Voted for It - The New York Times - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- How Republicans Re-engineered the Tax Code - The New York Times - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Republicans passed the 'big, beautiful bill.' Will it come back to haunt them? - USA Today - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Congressional Republicans defy expectations and send megabill to Trump - Colorado Public Radio - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Why Republicans once staunchly opposed to Trumps bill changed their minds - PBS - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Texas Republicans vote to send GOPs tax and spending megabill to Trumps desk after threatening to tank it - The Texas Tribune - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The 2 House Republicans who voted no on Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- House Republicans pass their megabill, sending it to President Trump - Politico - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Jeffries calls out Republicans over Medicaid ahead of final megabill vote - Politico - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Which House Republicans voted against Trump tax bill? - USA Today - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- These House Republicans Voted Against Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' - Newsweek - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- These are the 5 Republicans who voted against Trumps Big Beautiful Bill - AL.com - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Where Trumps massive policy bill stands in the House as some Republicans express concerns - PBS - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- House Republicans expected to pass Trump's massive tax and policy bill by July 4 - NPR - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Republicans Vulnerable to Losing Their Seats After Voting Yes on Trump Bill - Newsweek - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Who were the 2 Republicans that voted against Trump's tax bill? - NBC 5 Chicago - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- House Republicans advance Trump's tax-cut bill to a final vote - Reuters - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Congress passes Trump's tax and spending bill, with all four Colorado Republicans in the House voting "yes" - The Colorado Sun - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Republicans Just Passed the Worst Bill in Modern American History - Mother Jones - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Senate works a tense overnight session as Republicans seek support for Trumps big bill - PBS - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Article | Senate Republicans shock the House with a supercharged megabill - POLITICO Pro - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans struggle to push Trump's budget bill over the finish line - BBC - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Which Republicans Voted Against Trumps Bill in the Senate - The New York Times - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Republicans who bucked Trump on his big bill: From the Politics Desk - NBC News - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Why Republicans are rushing to pass Trump's "big, beautiful bill" - MSNBC News - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- House Republicans don't have the votes yet to pass Trump's megabill - CNBC - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Which Senate Republicans voted against Trump's tax and spending bill? - USA Today - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Fact-Checking Trump and Republicans on Proposed Tax Cuts in Policy Bill - The New York Times - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Senate Republicans just voted to dismantle Americas only climate plan - Grist.org - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Senate Republicans pass Trumps big bill but it may cost them in the future - The Guardian - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- House Republicans race toward a final vote on Trumps tax bill, daring critics to oppose - AP News - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Republicans in Congress Who Are Opting to Self-Deport From Washington - The New York Times - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Ahead of 2026, Georgia Republicans Are Quietly Installing Election Conspiracy Theorists on Local Boards - Democracy Docket - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Whats in the latest version of Trumps big bill Senate Republicans are trying to pass - PBS - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Top 5 Ways the Congressional Republicans Budget Reconciliation Bill Will Harm Disabled Students - Center for American Progress - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Republicans introduce last-minute industry killer tax on solar and wind in spending bill - CNN - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Young Republicans are fueling the GOPs generational divide on Israel - The Washington Post - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Senate Republicans tax cuts cost projected to rise to $4.45T - Politico - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Whats in Trump and Senate Republicans tax and immigration bill? - The Washington Post - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans move to slash consumer bureau funding by half, risking hundreds of job cuts - AP News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans advance Trump's tax and spending cuts bill after dramatic late-night vote - AP News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans scramble to pass Trump's big bill before July 4 deadline - Scripps News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Trump attacks Republicans who voted against big beautiful Bill - Yahoo - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Governor Hochul Slams Washington Republicans for Threatening New Yorkers Jobs, Small Businesses and Health Care in the North Country - Governor Kathy... - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Trump reacts to Tillis not seeking re-election, sends warning to 'cost cutting Republicans' - Fox News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Article | Senate Republicans make steep cuts to wind and solar in updated megabill text - POLITICO Pro - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans scrambling to pass tax-and-spend bill by Trump deadline - The Guardian - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Republicans rush to pass Big, Beautiful Bill ahead of July 4th holiday - CGTN America - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Senate Republicans Can Still Abandon Disastrous, Rushed Reconciliation Bill - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Gov. Kotek blames transportation package failure on Republicans who just wanted to go home - Oregon Capital Chronicle - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Republicans dangle reprieve from tax retaliation as Trump bill heads toward votes - Reuters - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- News Wrap: Senate Republicans unveil their version of Trumps big budget bill - PBS - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]