On Monday, President Donald Trump used an event at the White House to accuse Democrats in Congress of being in favor of open borders and festering crime as a campaign fight over the issue of immigration and the southern border of the US looms ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump told an event paying tribute to immigration officials that immigration would be a big issue dividing the nation’s two major political parties in the upcoming elections and predicted that the Republican Party would do very well. The President honored Customs and Border Protection agents, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Agents were brought to the podium to point out their achievements in stemming the flow of illegal drugs into the US and dealing with unlawful border crossings.
The federal agencies overseeing the immigration system and the US border have become part of the heated debate about the separation of immigrant families crossing the US border by the Trump administration. Trump’s comments make it clear that the White House intends to make immigration a crucial issue in the fall elections as Democrats attempt to take the 23 seats the party needs to again become a majority in the House of Representatives and destroy the small majority the Republican Party currently holds in the Senate.
Trump said that his signature issue of the border wall was being built “step by step”, but slammed Congressional Democrats for opposing his plan, accusing them of wanting open borders, and also slammed Democrat lawmakers for calling for the abolishment of ICE.