Illegal immigrants are rushing to cross the U.S. southern border ahead of the November presidential election to take advantage of President Joe Biden’s policies while fearing another term of Donald Trump in the White House.
After illegally crossing the Arizona border last week, two migrants from Colombia told New York Post reporter Jennie Taer that they were concerned about the outcome of the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
“We think with the elections, it will be harder,” 20-year-old Ricardo said, according to the Post.
Ricardo’s brother Sebastian, 18, added, “We don’t want Trump.”
The Colombian brothers claimed asylum after illegally crossing the border and were sheltered at the Yuma Regional Center for Border Health. Ricardo and Sebastian then reportedly were bused to the Phoenix airport, where they caught a flight to New Jersey to join their mother. According to the Post, Customs and Border Protection agents gave the illegal immigrants a court date for an asylum hearing in October.
Under Biden’s leadership, illegal crossings at the southern border have skyrocketed compared to the numbers under Trump. Last month alone, Border Patrol agents reported nearly 180,000 encounters at the southern border. There have been nearly 10 million nationwide border encounters throughout Biden’s first term in office, which include a record number at the U.S. northern border.
Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to take action to address the border crisis and claimed he does not have the authority to stop the influx of illegal immigrants. Earlier this month, however, the Post reported that the president was preparing to issue an executive order that would shut down the southern border if encounters passed 4,000 per day.
Trump, who won the 2016 election on the back of a campaign that focused on fixing the border crisis and building a wall, is once again promising to take strong action to stop illegal immigration. The former president has also said that, if elected, he would conduct the “largest deportation” of illegal immigrants in U.S. history.
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He told Time Magazine that the deportation would target between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants living in the country. Trump also said he would be willing to use the National Guard to deport illegal immigrants, adding, “These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country.”