Trump Leans Into Border Security Message in Final Week of Campaign

U.S. Shadow Senator from Puerto Rico, Zoraida Buxo Santiago. greets former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 29, 2024. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

ALLENTOWN, Pa.—Exactly one week before Election Day, Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump heavily emphasized border security to supporters during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 29.

Trump has made “securing the border” the principal argument of his 2024 presidential campaign, highlighting the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States, which has exceeded 8 million people since January of 2021, according to data published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In Allentown, Trump said that, if he wins in November, he would immediately ban all sanctuary cities in America, end catch and release, and order a nationwide effort to remove all illegal immigrants from the country.

“Many young girls [and] many people are being killed by the people that come in, illegally, through an open border,” Trump said. “The day I take the oath of office, the migration and this horrible migrant invasion ends, and the restoration of our country begins.”

During the rally, Trump played a video featuring Alexis Nunguray, whose 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn Nunguray, from Houston, Texas, was allegedly murdered by two illegal immigrants from Venezuela.

Trump said Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua is “tak[ing] over apartment complexes” in Aurora, Colorado, and “unleashing a violent killing spree all over America.”

Allentown has a majority Hispanic population, amounting to nearly 55 percent of the city, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. At the rally, Trump addressed Latino voters—specifically, Puerto Rican voters—and was joined on stage by several Latino politicians, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and U.S. Shadow Sen. Zoraida Buxó Santiago (R-P.R.). Buxó formally endorsed Trump’s candidacy during the event.

“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” Trump said. “I’ve done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far ... I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and Hispanic Americans.”

Trump’s campaign has faced criticism for a remark about Puerto Ricans made by roast comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Oct. 27.

Hinchcliffe joked that Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, was a “floating island of garbage” in the middle of the ocean. The remark has elicited bipartisan criticism and disavowal from the Trump campaign. Harris’s campaign has used those remarks in recent attack ads against Trump.

“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC News’s Rachel Scott during an interview published on Oct. 29.

Over 450,000 Americans of Puerto Rican descent live in Pennsylvania, making the community’s support critical to Trump in the state, where he leads Harris by just 0.6 percentage points on average. Latino speakers at the rally defended Trump against criticism of Hinchcliffe’s remarks on Puerto Rico.

“It’s easy to get distracted or misled by propaganda, emotional manipulation, or distortion of the truth and facts,” Buxó said during preliminary speeches at the rally. “I urge you to watch out and stay focused on what is truly important when you go to cast your vote. We need change.”

Rubio addressed Latino voters in Spanish during his speech. He argued that Trump would improve border security and economic conditions for them.

The rally in Allentown was one of Trump’s final appearances in Pennsylvania before Election Day on Nov. 5. With 19 Electoral College votes, it is the most influential battleground state in the country. While Trump spoke, Harris delivered a closing arguments campaign speech at the Ellipse in Washington.