WASHINGTON, United States: White House hopeful Donald Trump Saturday cheered the collapse of legislation targeting the migrant crisis on the US-Mexico border, while vowing that, if reelected, he would carry out a massive “deportation operation” on his first day in office.
The death of a bipartisan bill in the US Senate this week underscores the former president’s iron grip on the Republican Party as he seeks to deny Biden a victory on the hot topic of immigration.
“Let’s not forget that we also had another massive victory this week that every conservative should celebrate. We crushed Joe Biden’s disastrous Open Borders bill,” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina.
“The whole group did a great job in Congress. We crushed it.”
Under pressure from Trump, who wants to exploit Biden’s perceived weaknesses on immigration, Republican lawmakers appear to have decided they would prefer to stall any border reforms until after the November election.
Trump – whose successful first presidential campaign featured a key plank in building a giant wall on the US-Mexico border to keep out migrants – said on Saturday that deporting migrants would be one of his first tasks.
“On day one, I will end every open border policy of the Biden administration and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. We have no choice.”
The Senate’s border bill included aid for Ukraine and Israel, with lifelines for US allies appearing dead in the water after Republicans rejected it on Wednesday.
