On immigration, Biden offers a muted, confused message

Former President Donald J. Trump reiterated his tough message on immigration during Thursday’s debate, portraying undocumented immigrants as a threat to American jobs, national security and the social safety net. President Biden offered little pushback.

Trump argued that the president’s policies left the U.S.-Mexico border wide open, allowing crime and drugs to flow into cities and turning every state into a border state.

“We’re living in a rat’s nest right now,” Trump said. “They’re killing our people in New York, in California, in every state in the union because we don’t have borders anymore.” It was one of many Trump statements that were either inaccurate, lacking context or vague enough to be misleading.

Mr. Biden, meanwhile, has not defined a broader strategy on an issue that has become one of his party’s most nagging political vulnerabilities. He also did not refute what many historians see as anti-immigrant rhetoric that could fuel violence.

The president’s strongest defense of undocumented immigrants came more than an hour into the debate, when he suggested they were a “reason why we had the most successful economy in the world.”

The portion of the debate devoted to immigration was brief, but Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden addressed the issue repeatedly.

Ten minutes into the first talking point – the economy – Mr. Trump argued that the only jobs Mr. Biden “created are for illegal immigrants.” A few minutes later, on the issue of abortion, Mr. Biden seemed to be trying to make the point that Mr. Trump pays attention to the murders of young women by immigrants but not to women killed by severe abortion restrictions. But he mangled his delivery. Mr. Trump responded by denouncing the “many young women who have been murdered by the very people he allows to cross our border.”

Some contradictions inevitably arose. Mr. Biden, as confusing as his answers were, sought to emphasize his efforts to increase the number of asylum workers and to pass bipartisan legislation to increase funding for border security. He promoted his success in reducing migration rates in recent months.

Mr. Trump argued that the border had never been more secure than under his administration. He said, without providing evidence, that immigrants were staying in “luxury hotels” while veterans remained on the streets, and that migrants were taking jobs from black and Hispanic Americans and overburdening services like Medicare and Social Security. He conflated immigrants with criminals, as he often does, even though broader statistics do not support the idea that immigration fuels violent crime. He also dodged a question about whether his plans for mass deportations would ensnare every undocumented immigrant, including those who have jobs, are married to citizens or have been here for decades.

Some Democrats, Latino and immigrant rights leaders — who had hoped Biden would deliver a message rooted in toughness and compassion, in line with his most recent executive actions — saw the action as a missed opportunity.

They believed the candidates would present two very different perspectives on the issue, but found it was more of the same. Democrats have struggled with how to talk about this thorny issue, while they all talk about it, while Republicans have often filled that vacuum with fear, anger, resentment and prejudice, they said.

Pablo Alvarado, who fled war-torn El Salvador to become a U.S. citizen and activist, said he saw both candidates as weak. Mr. Trump scapegoated people with the least power in American society, he said, and Mr. Biden had failed to defend them.

“As an immigrant, I feel like we’re on our own,” said Mr. Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a union in Los Angeles. “We’re going to have to organize. We’re going to have to protect ourselves.”

Simon Hankinson, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, rejected characterizations that Trump’s rhetoric was dangerous. He said Trump was referring only to a portion of the immigrant population that had entered the country illegally.

“It’s a pretty tough ask for Biden to push back on negative characterizations of illegal immigrants when we have a laundry list of cases of young girls murdered by men deliberately released or paroled by the Biden administration,” he said .