Vance to visit US-Mexico border as Trump ramps up immigration crackdown
Vance will be joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, making them the highest-ranking officials from Trump’s administration to visit the border.
Trump has made immigration enforcement a central pillar of his presidency, vowing to curb illegal crossings and combat drug trafficking. (AP photo) US Vice President JD Vance will visit the US-Mexico border on Wednesday to highlight the Trump administration’s stricter immigration policies, reported AP. Officials claim the move has led to a sharp decline in illegal border crossings since the start of Donald Trump’s second term.
Vance will be joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, making them the highest-ranking officials from Trump’s administration to visit the border.
Their itinerary includes a stop at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, a site seized by Republican Governor Greg Abbott last year in a dispute with the Biden administration over border security measures.
Trump’s immigration crackdown
Trump has made immigration enforcement a central pillar of his presidency, vowing to curb illegal crossings and combat drug trafficking. On Tuesday, he imposed a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, citing their alleged failure to address drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested that negotiations to reduce the tariffs could be announced soon.
“They are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out fast,” Trump said in his address to Congress on Tuesday night, according to The Associated Press.
Border arrests and military deployment
Federal statistics, as per AP, show that arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico fell by 39 per cent in January compared to the previous month. The downward trend, however, began before Trump took office, following a record-high 250,000 arrests in December 2023. The decline has been attributed to increased enforcement by Mexican authorities and the Biden administration’s asylum restrictions implemented last summer.
The Trump administration has intensified enforcement efforts, putting detained immigrants on US military planes for deportation and expanding federal raids targeting those in the country illegally. Some migrants have been sent to the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said that while the priority is deporting migrants with criminal records, broader enforcement remains on the table. “If you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table,” he told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday. “When we find the bad guy, many times they’re with others who aren’t a criminal priority but are still here illegally. They’re coming, too,” Homan said, according to AP.
During his tenure, President Joe Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with addressing the root causes of migration, but Trump has repeatedly criticized her handling of the crisis. Harris visited the border in June 2021, several months into Biden’s presidency. By contrast, Vance’s trip comes just weeks into Trump’s second term.
(With inputs from AP)
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