On nearly every topic, Trump brings it back to the border
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President Biden and former US President and former President Trump participate in the first presidential debate. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
From the economy to insulin to childcare to abortion, former President Trump repeatedly turned the conversation to the border during Thursday's debate — centering an issue that has proven to be one of President Biden's most vulnerable.
Why it matters: Historic levels of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border have become one of the top issues this election cycle.
- Trump has made a border crackdown a focus of all three of his presidential campaigns, while the issue has been one of Biden's biggest vulnerabilities with back-to-back record years of illegal border crossings on his watch.
- Trump also used the immigration issue to hit Biden over verbal stumbles, saying, "I don't know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don't think he knows what he said either."
What they're saying: Trump repeatedly brought up the issue of crimes committed by migrants, claiming migrants are "killing our citizens at a level that we've never seen."
- He said he recently spoke to the mother of girl who was recently killed, adding "We had the safest border in the history of our country. All he had to do was leave it."
- Trump accused Biden of undoing much of his restrictive border policies "just because I approved it, which is crazy," saying Biden has "killed so many people at our border."
- There have been some recent, high-profile cases of unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes, but studies have shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes compared to those born in the U.S.
Zoom in: Trump said that people coming across the border were taking "Black jobs and they're taking Hispanic jobs."
- When responding to whether he would block abortion medication, he added "there have been many young women murdered by the same people he allows to come across our border."
The other side: Biden touted a bipartisan border deal that Republicans blocked in the Senate — at Trump's urging — and slammed Trump for "separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages."
- Biden claimed the Border Patrol Union endorsed him and his position. While the group did endorse the bipartisan border deal, they have not endorsed Biden himself — and backed Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Catch up quick: Biden has made two major immigration moves this month, giving him ammunition to push back on Trump's attacks.
- He issued a harsh executive order that allows border officials to quickly turn back migrants who illegally cross the border — without a chance at asylum — when border crossings meet a certain threshold.
- Border numbers have fallen significantly in the weeks following the action.
- Biden also made a path to citizenship easier for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for years and are married to U.S. citizens.
The other side: Trump has long campaigned on a harsh approach to immigration.
- He has promised to execute mass deportations of people who are in the U.S. without legal status.
- He would also seek to end birthright citizenship, screen prospective immigrants for "Marxist" ideologies and use the military to target drug smugglers.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
