Trump uses Spain migrant influx to draw attention to midterms
Trump uses Spain migrant influx to draw attention to midterms
Michael Loria and Francesca Chambers, USA TODAYFri, July 31, 2026 at 11:46 PM UTC
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Most of the tens of thousands of migrants who illegally crossed into Spanish territory this week left the country by Friday, July 31, after the incident drew responses from the Spanish military and world leaders, including President Donald Trump.
Over July 29-30, some 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast across from southern Spain. "Almost all" who surged across the border have now returned, Spanish authorities announced Friday. Dozens died in attempting to make the crossing.
"Almost all of those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco," Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares said in a statement on his official X page. The integrity of European Union borders remains "fully guaranteed," he said.
Spanish authorities thanked Morocco’s government for their cooperation in returning migrants to the North African country. Several thousand of the people who entered Ceuta remain in the territory.
The Spanish military deployed to Ceuta in response to the migrant influx.
What did Trump say about it?
The incident drew widespread attention after images of the thousands of mostly young men rushing into the Spanish coastal city went viral. The number of people crossing into Ceuta almost outnumbered the Spanish exclave’s population of 83,500. At least 57 people died in attempting to make the crossing, which was done by land and by sea. Many drowned or were crushed to death.
Trump said on July 31 that he had watched the "catastrophe" in Spain and noted "it looks like an invasion of a country."
The president used the migrant influx to draw attention to the upcoming midterm elections.
"That same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected. Except worse. Much bigger. Much easier to get into," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David. "Our country will be invaded at levels that make Spain look small-time."
The president’s comments come as Homeland Security continues construction on his promised border wall though experts say it’s unclear the massively expensive project will have the impact hoped for by Trump.
Spain slams surge at the border
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is a progressive and frequent Trump critic. But in response to the incident in Ceuta, he took a hardline stance against illegal immigration.
He called the migrant influx "an attack, a violation of the integrity of Spain’s territory . . . what happened yesterday deserves all our reproach, all our condemnation."
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Most European Union members share an open border policy among each other but migration from outside the union is a deeply divisive issue in the region.
Sánchez insisted Spain sees far fewer "irregular entries" than other European Union members on the region’s borders.
He cited European Union statistics in saying that between 2021 and 2026, Spain saw 234,760 "irregular entries," compared with Italy’s 478,600.
The United States has seen irregular crossings orders of magnitude greater in recent years, including a record of 2.2 million people in fiscal year 2022, according to PEW.
Why did so many people try crossing into Spain?
According to Prime Minister Sánchez, the massive surge at the border was prompted by a deliberate misreading of an immigration court case publicized by "the mafias that traffic human beings."
Sánchez said human trafficking groups spread the misleading interpretation that anyone who crossed into Spain by way of the sea would not be returned.
"It seems that this reading of the Supreme Court’s ruling has spread like wildfire during these latest hours through the networks of the mafia that traffic human beings," Sánchez said, "and has produced an avalanche of the character and scale that we witnessed yesterday."
Sánchez said Melilla, another Spanish exclave attached to Morocco’s mainland, saw a similar though smaller surge of migrants.
Has this happened before?
For many, the massive border crossing this week recalled a similar surge at Ceuta in 2021.
Amid a spat between Spain and Morocco’s governments, Moroccan police outside Ceuta relaxed controls, allowing groups of migrants to head toward the Spanish territory. An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people made the crossing during the three-day incident.
"That’s why," Sánchez said, "the Spanish government is going to use all means of the state, all of the resources of the state to guarantee the security of citizens of Ceuta."
Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that Spain and Morocco "have agreed to reinforce coordination and efforts to deal with these flows."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump uses Spain migrant influx to draw attention to midterms
Source: “AOL Breaking”
