Immigration emerges as key 2024 wedge issue for Trump, vulnerability for Biden

Immigration, one of the most politically divisive and complex matters in the U.S. for decades, is emerging as a top issue in the 2024 election.

Look no further than Iowa and New Hampshire, two early-voting states thousands of miles from the southwest border.

Voters there ranked immigration nearly as important as the economy when asked which issue mattered most in deciding how to vote in the Republican presidential contests.

«I think overall the most important thing to me is securing the borders, national security,» Bill Collins of Bedford, New Hampshire, told ABC News at a polling place on Tuesday.

Border security was a centerpiece of Donald Trump's successful 2016 campaign, and he is now repeating those messages (and in many cases going further than he did eight years ago, accused of echoing Hitler in saying immigrants are «poisoning the blood of our country») to energize and unite his supporters against what Republicans have dubbed «Biden's border crisis.»

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is facing rancor within his own party as Democratic leaders in New York and Illinois forced to deal with the fallout from busloads of migrants being sent to their cities by Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott amid a historic influx of border crossings.

«In his entire administration, it has eclipsed everything else,» said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border reached a record high of 302,000 in December and apprehensions hit historic peak of 2.2 million in fiscal year 2022. Over 100,000 migrants have been transported to cities like Washington, Los Angeles and New York.

Images of migrants lining the streets in Manhattan or Chicago helped shift perceptions of the issue