Los Angeles Times

America needs an immigration debate — just not the one we're having

US Customs and Border Protection officers take an immigrant child from her mother after they crossed the border from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas on Dec. 22, 2023.

WASHINGTON — Immigration will figure prominently in the 2024 presidential campaign, continuing its run as one of the nation's longest-running and most divisive issues.

Republicans plan to feature the troubles at the southern border as evidence for their argument that President Joe Biden is failing. Former President Donald Trump has amped up his already inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric, accusing migrants of "poisoning the blood" of Americans.

He focused on the subject again in his speech after winning Monday night's Iowa caucuses, saying that if he were elected he would enforce "a deportation level that we haven't seen in this country in a long time ... since the Eisenhower administration."

Democrats find themselves on the back foot. Public support for

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