Texas is a mirror of the tensions in the race for the White House (and not just over immigration)

On February 29th, when the decisive Super Tuesday was less than a week away, Joe Biden It is donald trump They met in Texas. During simultaneous, but separate, visits, the democratic president and the former republican president – ​​whose revenge for the Casa Blanca is practically a miracle – traveled to the border with Mexico, where they confirmed that the migratory crisis will be the central element in the career for the presidency of U.S.

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Trump and Biden, who finally won Tuesday’s primaries in Texas and other states, said they had the formula to face the growing records of irregular crossings at the southern border, for which, as always, they blamed each other. “Joe Biden is responsible for this invasion,” said the Republican in the city of Eagle Pass; while, from Brownsville, the Democrat accused his rival of sabotaging the approval in Congress of the immigration reforms that his government proposed to face the crisis.

Texas is the most populous and richest conservative state in the country. Led by Republican governor Greg Abbott, it has adopted an increasingly aggressive strategy against irregular immigration. In recent years, Texas has seen a rise in border arrests and expulsions, far exceeding those in Arizona, California and New Mexico, the other states that border Mexico.

The Lone Star State is a clear reflection of the tensions and polarization that not only dominate the US presidential campaign but also divide the country.

In addition to constant complaints about border management, Abbott has several legal disputes with the Biden administration, which he accuses of not enforcing the immigration laws in force in the country.

The most important friction revolves around Texas’ immigration law — known as Senate Bill 4 — a harsh state rule enacted by Abbott last December that allows for the detention and even expulsion of migrants who have crossed the border illegally from Mexico.

After Washington requested judicial intervention because it considered the borders to be federal jurisdiction, the country’s Supreme Court decided this week to suspend the application of the law.

Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston, says immigration and border security are the issues of greatest interest to Texas Republicans and Abbott, who are eager to continue their party’s winning streak in the state elections dating back to 1996.

“Most Texans, like those who will vote in November, prefer Abbott’s approach to border security and immigration to that of the Biden administration, making immigration not just a winning issue among Republican voters, but among all voters.” , points out.

(The trade)

Abbott’s million-dollar immigration policy – ​​which involves spending more than $3 billion annually – includes the deployment of buoys and barbed wire in the most critical areas between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as well as the deployment of the Texas National Guard and state police to patrol the border.

Abbott’s moves have also put him at odds with Democrats, especially after the Texas governor decided two years ago to transfer asylum seekers to northern cities run by that party. New York is one of the states that has taken legal action against the arrival of buses with hundreds of immigrants.

A group of migrants wait in line after arriving from Texas in front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal to receive humanitarian assistance on August 10, 2022 in New York. (Photo: AFP) (YUKI IWAMURA/)

Tuesday’s primary election in Texas was one of the most contested in the state’s history, pitting factions of the Republican Party against each other vying for victory.

Jones notes that Texas is increasingly polarized between the Republican and Democratic parties, but also within the Republican Party, which governs the state. “A Republican civil war has been raging for the last twelve years, with the more conservative – pro-Trump – wing of the party increasingly in control, and the more moderate conservative wing struggling to keep up,” he notes.

The fight is not exclusive to Texas, “as Republicans across the country and in Congress are involved in a fight for control of the party”, says “The New York Times”.

As political tensions boil, a group of citizens wants to separate Texas from the United States.

Those who promote ‘texit’ – alluding to the ‘brexit’ that separated the United Kingdom from the European Union – claim that the legal dispute between their state and the federal government proves that Texas’ problems are not understood and that the state must form your own country.

Texas is one of the states that has traditionally expressed the greatest distrust in the federal government and its policies.

Source: Elcomercio