ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith credited President Donald Trump on Monday with successfully clamping down on immigration, marking a stark contrast to former President Joe Biden’s approach.
Upon beginning his second term Jan. 20, Trump signed several executive orders targeting illegal immigration, including designating certain gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to accelerate deportations of illegal immigrant gang members on March 15. Smith, on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” said Trump’s effectiveness on the issue will be viewed positively by the American public. (RELATED: ‘You Sound Unhinged’: Scott Jennings Tears Into ‘Crazy’ CNN Panelist Who Claims Republicans Like White Supremacists)
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“When it comes to immigration enforcement, there is no doubt that Donald Trump has been successful,” Smith said. “We can slice it any way we want to, but Joe Biden having an open border policy caused a lot of problems in this nation, particularly to the psyche of American citizens.”
“You cannot have folks crossing the border illegally and in an undocumented fashion thinking that that is going to bode well for American citizens; whether it’s courtesy of $53 million in prepaid credit cards that were doled out by the [Eric] Adams administration, the mayor of New York, whether it’s [Governor] Gavin Newsom and the state of California indicating that there’s some debt issues with [Medicaid] because of the money that you spent on illegal immigration, whether it’s crimes in the streets, whether it’s the perception that the streets are unsafe in the streets of America simply because of an immigration problem,” he continued. “You cannot have that.”
Biden oversaw the highest level of net migration in U.S. history during his one term in office. There were around 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S southern border from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“The fact that Trump rolled up in there and cleaned this stuff up, prioritizing border control, definitely is going to be perceived as a plus, whether Democrats and others like it or not,” Smith said.
A Trump White House fact sheet published Monday demonstrated that border crossings, migrant encounters and “gotaways” were all down by 93% or more in the first 100 days of the president’s administration.
Trump holds a 47.8% approving rating on immigration and a 49.8% disapproval rating on the issue, according to the RealClearPolling average. However, a Sunday CNN poll conducted from April 17-24 found Trump with a 54% disapproval rating on immigration.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings told CNN host Laura Coates Monday that immigration was still Trump’s “best issue.”
“I actually think it‘s still their best issue, and I think when it all shakes out, what are they going to be able to say? Donald Trump effectively closed the southern border just by taking office and changing the attitude of the federal government,” Jennings said. “They have deported lots of violent criminals, and frankly, they are sending a different message than the previous administration, you know, the old way was, ‘Hey, just get here and we’ll find a way and it will probably work out for you.’ The new message is, ‘Don’t come here. Please don’t come here.’ And now people know that we mean it.”
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