Donald Trump will visit ground zero on Thursday for the border crisis in Texas as immigration explodes to become the biggest issue in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
A Gallup poll found that 28 percent of Americans now believe immigration is the biggest problem facing America, beyond just mentioning the economy or inflation.
This figure was an all-time high since Gallup began surveying voters about their views on immigration in 1981.
Trump, 77, accused Joe Biden of allowing a “terrible invasion” of the United States and said “migrant crime is taking over America.”
He also promised that if re-elected, he would carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
Trump is headed to the small town of Eagle Pass, Texas, where a huge influx of more than 1,000 migrants crossed every day in December.
Meanwhile, Biden will today visit Brownsville, Texas, where border crossings have declined after Texas Governor Greg Abbott installed more fencing and concertina wire.
Donald Trump will visit ‘ground zero’ for the Texas border crisis on Thursday, as immigration becomes the biggest issue facing the US for voters
The share of voters who consider immigration America’s top concern has soared in recent weeks, Gallup polls show
Public concern about illegal immigration is greater under Biden’s presidency than under the last two administrations.
In the latest Gallup poll, the share of Americans citing immigration as the biggest problem was up eight points from last month.
Other leading issues were the ‘government’ at 20 percent, the economy at 12 percent and inflation at 11 percent.
The 28 percent of voters citing immigration surpassed the previous record of 27 percent in a Gallup poll in July 2019, when there was a surge at the border.
In Texas, Trump will highlight the case of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University in Georgia.
She was found dead last week after failing to return from a morning walk in a wooded area.
Jose Ibarra, 26, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who entered the United States in 2022, has been charged with murder.
On the eve of his border visit, Trump said: ‘This monster should never have entered our country.
“He was released on Crooked Joe’s orders and released into our country.
“How many innocent victims remain to be harmed? How much more innocent blood must be shed before we can stop this horrible invasion and remove these illegal alien criminals from our country?”
Trump’s trip comes as Biden visits Brownsville, Texas, 200 miles east along the U.S.-Mexico border, on the same day.
Migrants lock arms with the rest of the group as they wade into the Rio Grande River intending to cross Eagle Pass, Texas, USA, from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, February 24, 2024
Texas begins construction on a new 200-acre military base camp in Eagle Pass for 2,300 troops as Gov. Greg Abbott promises to ‘assemble a great army’ to fight migrant invasion
his undated image, provided by Augusta University, shows Laken Hope Riley, a nursing student whose body was found Thursday, February 22, 2024, on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia
Venezuela’s Jose Antonio Ibarra is featured in one of his TikTok videos. Ibarra is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus
Augusta University College of Nursing students gather to mourn the loss of Laken Riley during a vigil for the nursing student at the Tate Plaza on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia, Monday, February 26, 2020
Trump won that vote and enters Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states decide, with a huge lead over his only rival Nikki Haley.
A majority of Americans now support a border wall like the one Trump proposed in 2016 and began building during his presidency, according to a new survey from Monmouth University.
The Del Rio sector of the border, which includes Eagle Pass, was the busiest area for illegal crossings in 2022 and 2023.
Across the border, U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants in December 2023.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is in a battle with Joe Biden over border enforcement
Workers collect a series of buoys to prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande River at the international border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S., July 27, 2023
Members of the U.S. National Guard stand near a helicopter for former U.S. President Donald Trump’s border visit, in Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S., February 28, 2024
That was by some distance the highest monthly total ever.
More than 71,000 arrests took place in the Del Rio sector in December.
Maverick County, which includes Eagle Pass, a city of 30,000, is a Democratic stronghold, but Republicans are winning.
In the 2020 election, Trump narrowed the gap to less than 10 points.
In January, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took military control of a 47-acre area of Eagle Pass called Shelby Park.
Members of the U.S. National Guard stand guard in Eagle Pass, Texas, where former U.S. President Donald Trump will make a border visit, February 28, 2024
Aerial view of migrants crossing the Rio Grande River from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to Eagle Pass, United States. December 21, 2023
He installed barbed wire and shipping container barriers in the park that runs along the Rio Grande.
Biden, in turn, sued Texas and emphasized that border control always falls under federal jurisdiction.
Abbott also plans to spend nearly $200 million to build an 80-acre “base camp” in Eagle Pass for National Guard troops.
It will house up to 2,300 members of the Texas National Guard and is close to both Shelby Park and the Eagle Pass National Bridge that connects to Mexico.
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