The raging debate over immigration and family border detentions is about a lot more than immigration---Democrats are looking to use it to their advantage in the upcoming midterm elections. That may explain why some of the rhetoric from the Left has grown so extreme in recent days, with calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and comparisons of border agents to terrorists and Nazis. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, recently told Tucker Carlson on Fox News that Democrats are using scare tactics to win votes. "It is pathetic to think that people in our own country would disparage their law enforcement officers and agents that are only trying to help them," said Judd. "What we're doing is we are enforcing the law in a very humane way, and we're doing it the way Congress asked us to do it."
Outlandish rhetoric aside, Democrats do appear to be seizing on this issue as a lifeline in the wake of President Trump's successes on the economy and foreign affairs. Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor at the University of Houston, believes the Dems can make some political hay on the immigration issue. "There could be a lot of people who, although they like the President and the economy is going well, may have some serious objections to the immigration issue and the way the administration has executed it," he tells KTRH, noting that the GOP has been put on the defensive over this issue. "The President had to back off some of his claims about the border, and some of the Republicans in Texas have essentially followed along."
Ultimately, it's likely Democrats will keep up their strong rhetoric and attacks on the border issue, believing it could be a winning strategy this fall. "The Democrats may have some traction on the immigration issue, because this is something which has become a nationwide issue, and has really funneled into a moral sense of what ought to happen at the border," says Rottinghaus.