US Republicans return to politics of immigration as midterm strategy

Hearings with homeland security secretary about the US-Mexico border also revealed rifts within Democrat ranks

Four years after Republicans embraced Donald Trump's nativist and often racist playbook in an attempt to keep control of Congress, the party is once again placing the volatile politics of immigration at the center of its midterm election strategy.

From the US-Mexico border to the US Capitol, in hearing rooms and courtrooms, Republicans are hammering the issue. At the forefront of the debate is a once-obscure public health order invoked by the Trump administration in March 2020 ostensibly as a means for controlling the spread of the coronavirus along the south-western border.