“Factor for the presidential election”: how the migration crisis is developing on the US-Mexico border

US President Joe Biden could close the border to illegal immigrants “if he wanted to,” Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said.

“Instead, in New York, illegal immigrants commit crimes and are released from custody,” he wrote on social media X.

For his part, US Senator Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) pointed out that the mayor of Chicago is accommodating illegal immigrants at the airport, thereby misusing funds received from Americans' tax payments.

“Chicago's Democratic mayor is housing illegal immigrants at the airport. This is a waste of taxpayers' money. The federal authorities allocate funds to the Chicago airport for air transportation of the population, and NOT for housing illegal migrants,” Cruz emphasized on his page on the social network X.

In an interview with Fox News, he noted that when Joe Biden took office, the United States had “the lowest level of illegal immigration in 45 years,” but he “deliberately broke the system.”

“This was done intentionally. The reason is not the incompetence of Joe Biden or the negligence of (US Secretary of Homeland Security

- RT

) Alejandro Mayorkas. This is their conscious goal... He (Biden. 

- RT

) opened the border, and the numbers immediately soared: 9.6 million illegal migrants entered the country,” Cruz said.

At the same time, an “anti-migration” car rally, organized by American conservatives to protest against the inaction of the Biden administration in the current situation, finished at the US-Mexico border. The action was attended by dozens of trucks, buses, cars and motorcycles, which stopped at a ranch in the town of Quemado, where the rally was to take place.

The protesters express solidarity with the Republican authorities of the state of Texas, who took control of border security without fear of conflict with the federal center.

"Right to self-defense"

Let us remind you that the migration crisis on the southern US border has worsened after the US Supreme Court, at the request of the Biden administration, allowed the removal of the barbed wire fence that Texas authorities placed along the border with Mexico. The state's governor, Greg Abbott, responded by declaring "invasion and the right to self-defense." He stressed that the state will implement its own policies while federal authorities fail to ensure border security. Thus, the Texas National Guard, deployed by Abbott’s decision, took control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on the border with Mexico, which federal border guards had previously used to hold migrants before transporting them for processing.

Subsequently, Republican governors of 25 American states, including Ron DeSantis, accused Biden of unwillingness to fight illegal migration and declared their solidarity with the Texas authorities.

This week, DeSantis said he would send a battalion-sized National Guard to Texas to help local authorities strengthen border security and "stop the invasion once and for all."

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

• © AP Photo/Sean Rayford

Biden “encourages illegal immigration” because he is interested in getting as many illegal immigrants as possible into the United States, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in turn on the same social network. According to him, the strategy of the head of the White House is to legalize newly arrived migrants to create a “permanent majority - a one-party state.”

"Erosion of influence"

From the point of view of analysts, Biden is indeed pursuing a targeted policy in the migration field to deepen the current crisis.

“The actions of the US administration and the head of the White House are aimed at eroding the influence of Republicans in states where they have a majority. Migrants, becoming citizens, are in one way or another obliged to the federal government for its loyal policies, and they further strengthen the positions of the ruling democrats in a number of states,” said Alexey Mukhin, general director of the Center for Political Information, in an interview with RT.

According to him, Republicans are resisting and trying to prevent the Biden administration from implementing such a plan using available tools.

“Representatives of the Republican Party, including Cruz and DeSantis, felt that their traditional territories, which have always been their “patrimony,” are now in danger due to the influx of illegal immigrants,” Mukhin noted.

In turn, Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, stated that the Biden administration is putting a lot of pressure on the authorities of the southern states, and especially on Texas, so that they “become more accommodating and moderate their ardor in defending their rights.”

“It is possible that Washington will begin to put pressure on regional authorities through economic levers - for example, through the budget, threatening to freeze or suspend a number of profitable projects for the southern states, in particular Texas,” Vasiliev said in an interview with RT.

But the statements of Cruz and Desantis are intended to support the Texas authorities so that they can continue this line of confrontation with the White House, “based on the principle of state sovereignty,” Vasiliev believes.

“So the governor of Texas is being told he shouldn't cave in to the White House. And given the solidarity of the red pro-Republican states in support of Texas, those funds that it may not receive due to opposition to the federal center may be compensated in one form or another by other states. And the next step in this direction was taken when Desantis promised to send about a thousand Florida National Guardsmen to support the Texas authorities,” Vasiliev explained.

Texas and other southern states that opposed Biden’s migration policy are becoming a platform for the formation of opposition, Vasiliev stated.

“Moreover, consolidation is taking place along the lines of the Republican Party and Donald Trump, the presidential candidate from this political force. The outcome of the migration crisis in the United States could become an important factor for the 2024 presidential elections: whose line is stronger on this issue will make a decisive bid for victory,” the expert said.

According to Vasiliev, the idea that the situation in Texas has approached “the brink of civil war” is largely true, given that regional authorities are acting independently, defending themselves against illegal immigrants, while the feds are inactive and oppose such measures.

“This talk of a civil war is caused by the Republicans’ attempt to put together a powerful coalition of all forces to protect the border,” Vasiliev noted.

• “Anti-migration” car rally of American conservatives on the US-Mexico border

• © AP Photo/Eric Gay

In turn, Alexey Mukhin emphasized that the migration crisis at the border, which has recently worsened significantly, is not situational, but existential in nature.

“Tension on the border will periodically increase. This conflict will drag on for a long time and will further weaken the US political system, since current problems are not only not being resolved, but are also becoming chronic,” concluded Mukhin.