The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Timeline: An increasingly tense dispute between Texas and the federal government

Analysis by
National columnist
Updated January 25, 2024 at 8:28 p.m. EST|Published January 25, 2024 at 4:14 p.m. EST
Migrants cross back over the Rio Grande after being told by Texas National Guard members that they had to leave the area where they were gathered to turn themselves in to seek asylum in the United States in Ciudad Juárez. (Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post)
9 min

At the moment, no issue in American politics is more fraught than immigration. A surge in people hoping to enter the United States to seek political asylum in recent years has strained local, state and federal resources.

Beyond those strains, the increase also supercharged political commentary — particularly on the right, given that immigration is a federal issue and President Biden is a Democrat and up for reelection. At the extreme, the new arrivals (the numbers of whom are often exaggerated) have become fodder for anti-immigrant rhetoric that is at times explicitly racist or conspiratorial.