Former President Trump on Tuesday made immigration and border security the centerpiece of his appeal to Wisconsin voters, suggesting his anti-immigration policies would boost his support with that key voting bloc.
Trump, speaking at a rally in Racine, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee, where next month’s Republican National Convention will be held, began his speech by addressing the backlash he received after he was reported to have said in a closed-door meeting with House Republicans that Milwaukee is a “bad city.”
“You know, I love Milwaukee. I chose Milwaukee,” Trump told the crowd.
Wisconsin is likely to play a key role in the November election between President Trump and President Biden. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 but lost to Biden by about 20,000 votes in 2020. Biden has a 1 percentage point lead in Wisconsin, according to the Decision Desk HQ/The Hill average of polls.
Most of Trump’s remarks focused on immigration after the Biden administration announced an executive order allowing certain undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens to stay and work legally in the country.
“It sends a message to the world that bad immigrants encourage illegal immigration, and that’s what’s happening now,” Trump said.
“Let’s not make a fool of ourselves, the people who are suffering the most are black and Hispanic people,” he continued. “You know who else is suffering the most? Labor unions.”
Majorities of each of those voters supported Biden in the 2020 presidential election, but polls have shown Trump making gains, especially among Black and Hispanic voters, that could hurt Biden in November’s election.
At one point, Trump claimed without evidence that countries around the world were emptying their prisons and sending migrants to the southern border, while his supporters began chanting “send them back.”
Trump vowed to roll back Biden’s immigration policies if re-elected, and repeated a claim echoed by many Republicans on Tuesday that Biden’s policies are a political ploy to win over new voters ahead of the November election.
“Biden’s betrayal will not be tolerated. If I am re-elected, Joe Biden’s illegal amnesty plan will be scrapped on the first day in office,” Trump said. “Because he’s just using that group. But he’s going to bring in anybody. You know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to register these people.”
Biden’s announcement came as he marked the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at the White House with immigrant advocacy groups and Latino leaders.
The expansion of existing parole programs, known as the regularization program, comes in conjunction with measures to make it easier for undocumented immigrants who have graduated from U.S. universities, particularly DACA recipients, to apply for work visas.
Beneficiaries will not receive any new privileges, but existing methods for regularizing immigration status will be streamlined under the new rules.
To be eligible for parole, he must have been in the U.S. for 10 years as of Monday.
President Biden took executive action earlier this month to turn away migrants seeking asylum who cross the southern border illegally during a period of routinely high-volume encounters.
“Folks, I’m not interested in playing politics on the border or immigration. I’m interested in solving the problems,” Biden said Tuesday.
Polls have shown immigration to be a top issue for many voters ahead of the November presidential election, and they have consistently shown they trust Trump more than Biden on the issue.
A Marquette University survey of registered voters nationwide conducted last month found that 52% said Trump did a better job on immigration and border security, while 25% said Biden did a better job.
Democrats on Tuesday slammed Trump over his hiring record in Wisconsin and reports — denied by the Trump campaign — that he planned to stay at his Chicago mansion instead of Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.
“Donald Trump has made his disdain for Wisconsin well known,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Adi Toevs said in a statement. “During his time in office, Trump has caused 80,000 Wisconsin families to lose their jobs, with at least 1,000 in Racine alone losing their jobs. He also touted but failed to build plans to build a manufacturing plant that wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Trump does not know or care about the experiences of Wisconsin workers.”
