Immigration debate intensifies

WASHINGTON/BEIJING — The United States, a country built by waves of immigrants, is now grappling with a dilemma of illegal immigration, which has become both a flashpoint and a partisan weapon in US politics.

As Republicans and Democrats turn to immigration as a defining issue in the presidential election campaign, genuine solutions appear increasingly out of reach. Instead, immigration has become a high-stakes game, with each side focusing more on how to exploit the issue than addressing its complex underlying causes, according to an analysis of Xinhua News Agency.

In recent months, immigration has soared to the top of voters' concerns. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that about 60 percent of US citizens now view immigration as important to their vote, up significantly from previous years.

While Republican and Democratic politicians have both responded with intensified rhetoric, they have done little to bridge their divide on how to handle the issue. Instead, state and federal authorities are caught in conflicts that reflect the country's deepening partisan split.

Last year, Republican-led states, including Texas and Florida, transported undocumented immigrants to Democratic strongholds like New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago. Early this year, in order to deter migrant crossing, Texas deployed National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border, laid concertina wire border barriers and prevented federal agents from monitoring the border, highlighting the lack of a coordinated national approach.

As the presidential election looms, Democrats and Republicans are doubling down on immigration as a means to rally their bases.

Democrats continue to advocate for policies that portray them as champions of immigrant rights, emphasizing humane treatment and protections. While the Democratic stance resonates with their core supporters, it also serves an electoral strategy: immigrants and their descendants represent a growing and potentially reliable base for the party.

However, with an increasing number of voters in favor of stronger immigration control, Democrats have started to shift their position.

Shift in stance

In June, US President Joe Biden issued an executive order restricting asylum claims, limiting legal pathways at the US-Mexico border in a rare departure from the party's traditional stance. Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has echoed this shift, advocating for both legalization pathways and stronger border enforcement.

Republicans, meanwhile, have adopted an increasingly hard-line stance, framing immigration as a national security threat and opposing any form of legalization for undocumented immigrants. The camp of Donald Trump has ramped up its rhetoric, promising to conduct mass deportation if elected and blaming undocumented immigrants for issues like housing shortages and inflation, aiming to weaken support for Democrats among minority and union voters.

However, despite both parties' claims to prioritize voter interests, neither side has developed practical, actionable solutions. Democrats and Republicans alike focus on exploiting immigration as a wedge issue, stirring up partisan animosity without tackling the root causes of the problem, the analysis said.

A recent Pew Research Center survey revealed that three-quarters of US voters believe undocumented immigrants primarily take up jobs that the US citizens don't want to do, with 90 percent of Harris supporters and 59 percent of Trump supporters sharing that view respectively.

Meanwhile, Harris and Trump are making a last-day push before Election Day. Harris was due to spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome.

Trump has planned four rallies in three states, beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina and stopping twice in Pennsylvania, with events in Reading and Pittsburgh.

Xinhua - Agencies