Its been less than a week since Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 Republican presidential candidacy, and the ongoing and bitter jousting between Team Trump and Team DeSantis continues with unprecedented and disingenuous mischaracterizations, misinformation, and outright lies, about issues like immigration and "Biden Border Crisis."
Online supporters of former President Donald Trump have been posting that Gov. DeSantis is a “RINO” a “Globalist” and a George Soros-supported stooge, and have reverted to using doctored images to dress down DeSantis.
Since his announcement, DeSantis’s “rapid response” team led by Christina Pushaw has been out pushing back against any anti-DeSantis narratives and accusations.
While she has been widely successful in doing her job less than 48 hours since DeSantis announced his run for President, Pushaw appears to have been too rapid in her response to Liz Harrington’s immigration claim that DeSantis “Voted for The Exact DACA Bill Over Which He Is Now Attacking President Trump,” and did not thoroughly think before she tweeted.
“If Trump built the wall, why isn’t there a wall on the border right now? We wouldn’t have a Biden border crisis today if we had a wall as promised,” tweeted Pushaw.
Pushaw’s assertion that the border crisis would not have existed if Trump built the wall is patently false.
If Trump built the wall, why isn’t there a wall on the border right now?
We wouldn’t have a Biden border crisis today if we had a wall as promised. https://t.co/L2V2TnHgUh
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) May 26, 2023
Illegal immigration has always been a problem, and prior to Trump winning the 2016 presidential election, migrants were streaming illegally across the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Because of the illegal immigration problem occurring under then-President Barack Obama’s watch, Trump campaigned on building “The Wall” and having Mexico pay for it.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed Executive Order 13767 to start building the border security fence or wall he campaigned on using existing federal taxpayer funding.
Remember, “The Wall” construction did not begin until 2018 mainly because Senate Democrats and Republicans, who opposed the wall’s construction, stymied appropriation measures Trump needed to fund his wall project.
After many congressional Republicans decided not to run for reelection in 2018, Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in 2018 and began their campaign to stop the walls construction.
On February 27, 2019, House Democrats voted in favor of a resolution that rejected the President’s previous declaration of a national emergency along the border region. Senate Democrats did the same in March.
Trump pushed back with is declaration, but the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress voted to end his measure for a second time.
Legal challenges across the nation followed in the coming months, stifling efforts to continue building the wall going into the 2020 presidential election.
Deportations
In addition, Pushaw has also taken a jab at Trump for allegedly deporting less illegal immigrants than President Obama.
This is accurate that Obama detained and deported more illegal immigrants than Trump, but he did it using his “Catch and Release” immigration policy.
In 2016, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R), outlined the Obama “Catch and Release” immigration initiative.
“Not only has President Obama sought to undermine our immigration laws at every opportunity possible, now his political appointees have implemented a ‘catch and release’ policy that contradicts the Administration’s already weak enforcement priorities. Rather than take the steps necessary to end the border surge, the Obama Administration is encouraging more to come by forcing Border Patrol agents to release unlawful immigrants into the United States with no intention of ever removing them. “The ongoing lack of enforcement and dismantling of our immigration laws undermines both our nation’s immigration system and the American people’s faith in their government,” said Chairman Goodlatte.
Also, it's important to note that far less migrants were attempting to cross over into the US during Trump’s term in office.
The Hill reported, "Immigration advocates said the Trump administration’s desire to deport immigrants indiscriminately rather than targeting criminals for deportation has slowed its pace."
“ICE has sort of declared open season on immigrants,” Michael Tan, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told the newspaper. “So you’re seeing people who under the previous administration would have been eligible for bond and release being kept in custody.”
The “Remain in Mexico” policy and the threat of the tightening of U.S. immigration policy served as a deterrent for illegal immigration.
During his term in office, then-Congressman Ron DeSantis (R) was one of many Republican lawmakers advocating for Trump's "Wall" and in expressing their disdain for President Obama's soft immigration policies. DeSantis continues to advocate for the building of Trump's border security wall and for the reimplementation of the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy. DeSantis has also defended Trump's immigration policies.
