Trump’s Weaponization of Border Crisis Pressures 2020 Democrats to Offer Their Own Vision

  • Progressives seek detailed plans from presidential contenders
  • President ramping up tension ahead of re-election campaign

An anti-Trump protest in Calexico, California, ahead of his visit is seen across from the U.S.-Mexico border in Mexicali, Mexico.

Photographer: Eros Hoagland/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

President Donald Trump’s intensifying border crackdown promises to make immigration a central issue of the 2020 campaign, but the Democrats running to replace him haven’t yet offered voters a detailed vision beyond fierce opposition to his policies.

A new surge of migrants at the southern border is exposing divisions among Democratic presidential hopefuls about whether to stick with a six-year-old bipartisan vision for the immigration system or to make sharper changes such as decriminalizing undocumented migration.