Immigration at the heart of the American campaign

Photo: Adil Boukind Le Devoir George Rodriguez, anti-immigration columnist and YouTuber, who had his booth at the 2024 Republican convention in San Antonio, Texas.

Lisa-Marie Gervais In San Antonio and Eagle Pass, Texas

Published at 0:00

• United States

Ce texte est tiré du Courrier des élections américaines. Pour vous abonner, cliquez ici.

“We lost control! We have to close the border. » Sitting at his exhibitor booth at the Texas Republican Party convention, political columnist George “El Conservador” Rodriguez unpacks his anti-immigration speech without taboo or complex. “Yes, it’s inhumane to [reject] children and families at the border, but I’m sorry, we can’t accept everyone. We need to stand up and say, “Wow, first and foremost, we’re going to take care of our world.” »

Commentator for various media, including Fox News, this sixty-year-old Texan of Mexican origin, who also hosts his own AM radio show, is not kind to he place of immigrants who come to “colonize the United States.” He even has his theory about the most “lazy” among them who, rather than coming to meet labor needs as was the case before, take advantage of social assistance. “The welfare check is equivalent to the salary earned by an undocumented immigrant,” he says. So why work if you get the same amount for doing nothing ? »

This former civil servant says he draws this observation, which it has not been possible to verify, from a study he did when he worked for the Reagan government's Department of Justice in the community relations sector and immigration awareness.

We need to cut welfare and punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, says Rodriguez. “We have enough poverty as it is. »

Grand Old Party activists are not the only ones to be concerned about immigration, even if they are, by far, the most susceptible to it give importance (48% of Republicans versus 8% of Democrats, according to a Gallup poll).

According to the same poll conducted in April, illegal immigration was then, for a third consecutive month, cited by American respondents as the number 1 problem in the country.

Since then, an Ipsos poll shows that this crucial theme alternates with inflation at the forefront of Americans' concerns, particularly in the pivotal states, in particular Arizona, which has a border with Mexico. And, unsurprisingly, this subject is the one that divides the most.

Immigration is political

In his small air-conditioned office in Eagle Pass, a Texan town on the border with Mexico, immigration lawyer Cesar Lozano keeps repeating it: immigration is political. “We would like [immigration] laws to simply be enforced, but there is always a political aspect to it,” he says.

An immigrant does something wrong ? Republicans will use this as a “test case” and insinuate that migrants are a threat. “Even if 99.9% of immigrants are not like that,” adds the lawyer, who does not hide his Democratic connections.

Last February, in the state of Georgia, the murder of student Laken Riley by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant was used by Republicans and Democrats for political purposes. Joe Biden, who referenced the 22-year-old's tragic death in the State of the Union address, has been accused of wanting to score points for his campaign. For their part, the Republicans, the majority in the House of Representatives, had just passed the Laken Riley Act, a bill to allow the arrest and detention of any undocumented immigrant committing crimes related to theft, which was deemed “demagogic” by the Democrats.

According to Carlos Heredia, an economist and associate professor at the Center for Economic Research and Education in Mexico, immigration is also a subject of importance between the two neighboring countries. So far, it is used as a “bargaining chip” with the left-wing Mexican government, which will now be led by the new president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

It will continue regardless of who ends up in the White House, believes the researcher specializing in immigration issues between Mexico and the United States. “The idea is that the Biden administration will avoid getting involved in the day-to-day affairs of Mexican politics and, in exchange, Mexico will arrest and send as many Central American and Caribbean migrants south as it can. »

Security threat

In 2023, the United States will see 3.2 million migrants crossing its border with Mexico, to the south, a number which is constantly increasing.

Last December, when the border services had recorded a record of more than 302,000 entries, the president Biden had also sent a group made up of his secretary of state, his head of immigration and his homeland security adviser to discuss the problem with their Mexican counterparts.

For Americans, immigration is also and above all a matter of national security, believes Carlos Heredia. “Even trade negotiators know that, at their core, real immigration talks are about security. »

It is by brandishing the security threat that the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has justified an investment of more than 10 billion US dollars so far to militarize the border and protect it against what he described as “ invasion” of migrants.

Last year, he even chartered buses to send thousands of them to cities known to be Democratic, including New York . “They were lied to and eventually dropped off on the street. Beyond the legal aspect, on the political level, this operation was a big mistake”, argues Cesar Lozano.

The lawyer deplores that, for some time , Eagle Pass and its approximately 30,000 residents serve as a “stage” for the “propaganda of Republicans and anti-immigration groups.”

Many Republican figures — including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump — came to observe the construction of a second wall, made of shipping containers, and the installation of buoys and barbed wire in international waters, measures that the federal government contests indeed before the Supreme Court, alleging that the states do not have these powers.

“I’m not saying there isn’t a crisis.” , maintains Me Lozano. But he notes, once again, that this crisis is being “used” for political purposes. “We must remain very human in the way we manage it,” he believes. If Trump comes to power, I fear he will want to deport everyone, even legal immigrants. »

Cesar Lozano also wants to point out that even the people who currently live without papers in the United States first had, for the overwhelming majority, legal status. “It’s just that when their visa or work permit expired, these migrants stayed. » While continuing to fuel, despite themselves, a debate which is not about to expire.

This text is taken from the American Election Mail.

This report was financed with the support of the Transat-Le Devoir.~60 International Journalism Fund ~/p>