Trump Vows to Axe Every Open Border Policy of Biden Administration on Day One

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. Jeff Dean/AP Photo

Former President Donald Trump said at a Saturday rally that, if elected in November, he would move quickly to fix a host of problems plaguing the country, including using executive power to free Jan. 6 “hostages” and ending every single “open border policy of the Biden administration” on day one after taking office.

The former president opened his March 16 rally in Dayton, Ohio, with a standing salute to Jan. 6 “hostages,” while a recording of the Pledge of Allegiance played in the background.

After walking up to the mic amid loud audience chants of “USA! USA!”, the former president praised the “spirit of the hostages,” referring to the people who have been jailed, sometimes without being charged, for their roles in the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“They’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly,” President Trump said. “And we’re going to be working on that soon, on the first day we get into office,” he continued, while calling the Jan. 6 detainees “unbelievable patriots.”

Dozens of Jan. 6 detainees are still languishing in jail awaiting trial, over three years after the Capitol incident.

President Trump has previously vowed to free from prison those involved in the Jan. 6 incident as one of his very first acts upon taking office, if he wins the election in November.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 incident, Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to press ahead with more prosecutions—and to cast the net more widely.

“We have initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack,” he said.

Prosecutors have, to date, secured over 890 convictions in connection to the Jan. 6 incident, with Mr. Garland vowing to press ahead to cast the DOJ dragnet widely.

“As I said before, the Justice Department will hold all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under the law—whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a speech on Jan. 5.

“We are following the facts and the law where they lead.”

‘Migrant Invasion’

After discussing the issue of Jan. 6 detainees, President Trump turned his focus to other problems facing the country, including the border crisis, which he vowed to move quickly to address.

“Right now our country’s in trouble. And we’re going to help our country that’s in trouble,” President Trump said. “We’re going to make it great again and we’re going to do it very fast.”

Highlighting his recent primary victories that have made him the presumptive Republican nominee, President Trump turned his attention to border security.

He said that, during his 2016 presidential campaign, fixing the influx of illegal immigrants was one of his key agenda items, adding that the severity of the problem at that time was far less acute than it is today.

“That border was a tiny fraction of what this border is,” President Trump said. “This is the worst border in the history of the world.”

“Millions and millions of people are pouring into our country,” he continued.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks in a library at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 4, 2024. Alon Skuy/Getty Images

According to some estimates, around 10 million people have entered the United States illegally since President Joe Biden took office.

Illegal immigration has become a key concern among voters this election cycle, with a recent Monmouth University poll revealing that about six in 10 Americans believe that illegal immigration is a “very serious problem.”

That’s a sharp increase from 2015 and 2019, when prior Monmouth polls found that 43 percent and 49 percent, respectively, held that view.

The poll also showed that, for the first time in the survey’s history, a majority of Americans support building a Trump-style wall along the U.S.–Mexico border.

Republicans have blamed President Biden’s policies for fueling the illegal immigrant influx, while President Trump has accused him of pushing open border policies as part of a cynical bid to expand the Democrat voter base and stay in power for decades.

“Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters, and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations,” President Trump said during a March 2 rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on President Trump’s allegation.

‘Terminate Every Open Border Policy’

At the Dayton rally, President Trump vowed to take swift action on the border on the very first day in office.

“Not one more American life should be lost to migrant crime,” he said, while recalling the recent case of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered, allegedly by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.

“When I’m president of the United States, we will demand justice for Laken,” he said. “On day one, my administration will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

President Trump has previously vowed to deport illegal immigrants en masse after assuming office.

“Nobody’s been hurt by Joe Biden’s migrant invasion more than our great African American and Hispanic American communities ... because they’re taking your jobs and they’re creating lots of problems,” the former president continued at the Dayton rally.

He said that the throngs of illegal immigrants entering the country would strain Social Security and impact the lives of retirees.

“Your Social Security will be destroyed by the people coming in,” he said. “There’s too many of them. It’s not sustainable. Joe Biden is costing you Medicare and he’s costing you your Social Security.”

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump speaks at a rally in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 20, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

At a recent rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, President Trump escalated his criticism of President Biden and the border crisis, accusing him of waging a “conspiracy to overthrow” the United States by way of record-breaking levels of illegal immigration.

“Biden’s conduct on our border is by any definition a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America,” President Trump alleged. “He talks about democracy but he’s a danger to democracy.”

President Trump then suggested that the conspiracy is letting in millions of illegal immigrants, then legalizing them by means of legislative reform and ultimately turning them into Democrat voters with th

Similar arguments have been made by people who allege that Democrats are promoting illegal immigration to tip the electoral scales in their favor.

Studies have shown that, when immigrants are naturalized and gain the right to vote, they are less likely to vote Republican than native voters.