Trump ramps up migrant crackdown; champions death penalty

Donald Trump has escalated his migrant crackdown, amid growing fears among Democrats that Kamala Harris is losing momentum.

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in California on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has backed the death penalty for migrants who kill American citizens as he ramps up his call for a crackdown on illegal immigration, with some Democrats growing concerned that Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House may be losing steam.

While Ms Harris maintains her lead in national polls after the withdrawal of Joe Biden in July, Democrats fear the race is tightening in the final weeks of the campaign in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, with the latter seen as crucial to victory on November 5.

A Wall Street Journal poll of seven battleground states suggests Americans were giving Mr Trump the edge over Ms Harris on who would better navigate the country through the Ukraine and Israel conflicts.

Mr Trump, who has promised mass deportations of illegal immigrants, escalated his rhetoric to “hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country”.

At a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday afternoon (Saturday AEDT) – a state won by Mr Biden by more than 13 percentage points in 2020 – Mr Trump said he was “calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer”.

Standing next to posters of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, he rump said he would use a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act to set up “Operation Aurora” to help dismantle “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil”.

“Kamala has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the Third World,” he said.

The pivot to illegal migrants comes on the back of polls showing Ms Harris closing the gap with Mr Trump on the economy, reducing the Republican advantage in one of their key areas of strength.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris helps pack supplies for those affected by Hurricane Helene during a campaign stop in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the weekend. Picture: AFP

However, latest polling averages produced by Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin and 538 indicate a tightening race in both Wisconsin and Michigan, with Mr Trump using a speech in Detroit – Michigan’s largest city – on Friday to warn that it was a “developing area – a hell of a lot more than most places in China”.

“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she is your president,” he said.

Signposting Democratic concerns, former president Barack Obama used a campaign office appearance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the previous day to admonish black men who were considering supporting Mr Trump.

“I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that you aren’t just feeling the idea of having a woman as president,” he said. “So now you are thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that is a sign of strength because that’s what being a man is – putting women down?

“That’s not acceptable.”

While Mr Biden won 90 per cent of black voters in 2020, a New York Times/Siena College poll published at the weekend showed that of likely black voters, 78 per cent would vote for Ms Harris. However, only 70 per cent of black men said they would back Ms Harris, with 20 per cent indicating support for Mr Trump.

New WSJ polling also shows Mr Trump leading Ms Harris among swing-state voters 50-39 per cent on who is best able to handle Russia’s war in Ukraine. On who can better handle the Israel-Hamas conflict, Mr Trump’s advantage of Ms Harris is wider at 48-33 per cent.

“When Trump was president, we didn’t experience any wars,” said David Lee, a Republican pollster who worked on the Journal survey with Michael Bocian, a Democrat. “With Biden-Harris there, there’s definitely been more unrest in the world, and the base of the Democratic Party, as far as Israel and Hamas go, are fighting against each other.”

Mr Trump refused to say in the September 10 presidential debate with Ms Harris whether a Ukraine victory was in the US interest.