Trump Plays Immigration Fears Without Evidence at Big Debate Against Joe Biden: "It’s a Terrible Thing"

Donald Trump played the fear card during the first presidential debate with President Joe Biden as he asked the incumbent President why he let the immigrants "destroy our country." The former President went on to call the immigrants, criminals and accused Biden of supporting crime in the country by opening the borders per PolitiFact. 

"I’d love to ask him: why he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails, and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country," Trump said. Adding later, Trump said, "These killers are coming into our country. They are raping and killing women. It’s a terrible thing." Biden responded to Trump's claims by aggressively refuting the ex-POTUS' statement and asserting, "That’s simply not true. There’s no data to support what he said. Once again, he’s exaggerating. He’s lying. When he was president, he was taking, separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure that families are separated," Biden said. "That’s not the right way to go," the President clapped back at the Republican.

According to AP News, Trump had promised on several occasions to give a nod to the largest domestic deportation in U.S. history. The businessman-turned-politician also stands firm on bringing back his policies like the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42 to curb the migrants on public health grounds. Other than this, Trump has also vowed his supporters with the travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. He pledged new "ideological screening" for immigrants to bar "dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs," from entering the USA.  He’d also try to deport people who are in the U.S. legally but harbor “jihadist sympathies.” He’d seek to end birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. whose parents are both in the country illegally.

Meanwhile, Biden stands firm on a completely different ground. The president has positioned his argument on implementing a comprehensive immigration policy that would allow an eight-year naturalization into citizenship for immigrants in the U.S. Especially the youngsters who moved to the country as kids alongside their parents and are living in the country as illegal immigrants. However, the president also lent his support to a Senate compromise for stringent asylum standards that goes on to supplement Trump's argument. Biden has also given the nod to sanction billions more in federal dollars for more border agents, immigration judges, and asylum officers to keep a check on immigration in and around the borders. However, the deal could not make it with Trump's opposition. Adding to the controversy, Biden is considering an executive action plan on the border later this year. 

According to AP News, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández stated, "No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide and that Republicans rejected. The administration spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades because we need Congress to make significant policy reforms and to provide additional funding to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system. Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, rejected what border agents have said they need, and then gave themselves a two-week vacation," in February 2024.