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BROWNSVILLE, Texas — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump appeared in a dramatic split-screen on Thursday as the 2024 presidential race gets into full swing over the immigration issue that has confounded both parties’ administrations for decades. is visiting the southern border at the moment.
This will be Biden’s second visit to the border since he took office as president. I first visited El Paso in January 2023. This time, we’re visiting Brownsville, a border town in the Rio Grande Valley that has long felt the effects of immigration up close.
The president’s briefing with border officials began shortly after Trump began his speech in Eagle Pass, Texas. Biden thanked Border Patrol agents and said he would provide them with more resources “come hell or high water.” He is expected to give more detailed remarks later on Thursday.
Meanwhile, President Trump called the immigration crisis “an invasion by Joe Biden” and a “vicious violation of our country.”
The former president spoke at length about Laken Hope Riley, 22, a nursing graduate student who died this month while jogging near the University of Georgia.
Conservatives across the country are pointing to Riley’s death as an example of immigration crime after an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant was charged in connection with her death.
President Trump on Thursday called Riley’s death “barbaric” and called her a “beautiful young woman.”
He also said he spoke with Riley’s parents on Wednesday, telling reporters: “They are incredible people who are incredibly devastated.”
A Biden campaign adviser told NBC News that Biden “is going to be pretty tough on the border and against President Trump.” “He needed to go to the border to make it clear that this was his responsibility,” the aide said of the bipartisan border security agreement that collapsed after Trump urged Republicans to vote against it. ” he added.
Still, critics of the administration say Biden is visiting Brownsville at a time when the dire consequences of the influx of migrants are being felt elsewhere. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that includes the Border Patrol, says more migrants are now crossing through other parts of the border, including Arizona and Eagle Pass.
President Trump has visited the border multiple times and announced his visit before the White House. Biden had plans to go this week, he said, but he didn’t know that “a good friend of his” would be coming the same day. Two senior administration officials said the timing of the visit, a week before the State of the Union address, was timed to maximize political impact. One official said he would “welcome a split screen” with Trump.
“It’s a beautiful day. It’s a beautiful day. But it’s a very dangerous border. We’ll deal with it,” Trump told reporters after arriving in Texas.
Trump joked about Biden on his radio show this week, saying, “We found a way to get him out of trouble. It took him a while to declare he was going to the border.”
The White House insisted Wednesday that Biden’s visit was already planned.
“You can’t suddenly put something on the president’s schedule,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a question about whether Trump’s visit prompted the White House’s announcement. “It takes time to do that.”
In a January NBC News poll, 57% of registered voters said Trump would do a better job on border security, while 22% said the same would be true for Biden. The poll found that 48% of people said they trusted Mr. Biden to treat immigrants humanely, while 31% said the same was true for Mr. Trump.
The Biden administration claims that House Republicans watered down a bipartisan bill that included $20 billion for border security at President Trump’s request. The bill passed the Senate and was supported by the Border Security Coalition. The White House announced the addition of 100 immigration agents, 1,500 Customs and Border Protection employees, 4,300 asylum workers, and more detention beds. Funding would also have been provided to install more machines to detect fentanyl at ports of entry.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said the Senate’s version doesn’t go far enough to address the border crisis. Democrats argue that Mr. Biden is not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants and blame Republicans for refusing to compromise to bring immigration issues to the forefront in an election year.
With Congress inaction, Biden is considering executive action to strengthen asylum rules. Immigration advocates and progressive Democrats have urged him not to make it harder for immigrants to apply for asylum, saying it would put them at risk in Mexico.
The Democratic National Committee announced Thursday that it will place mobile billboards in Eagle Pass during Trump’s visit criticizing former President Trump’s efforts to block bipartisan border legislation and immigration issues.
The commission said the billboards will read that President Trump “breached the border” during his administration and “now has discarded a bipartisan border agreement for the sake of pure politics.” .
DNC Spokesman Alex Floyd said, “If given the opportunity, President Trump will continue to use cruel and chaotic methods to separate children from their parents, herd people into concentration camps, and use the military to carry out mass deportations.” “This will further strengthen inhumane immigration policies.” said in a statement. “Voters heading to the polls this November will remember how President Trump put himself and his political ambitions above securing his borders and serving the American people.”
Republicans argue that the Trump administration’s border policies have deterred illegal immigration and secured the border. Illegal immigration had been declining for most of his term, but began increasing in late 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, President Trump himself reversed a particularly controversial hard-line immigration policy called “zero tolerance” that led to the forced separation of migrant families at the border in 2017.
When Biden takes office in 2021, he promises to return to more “humane” immigration rules and immediately signed executive orders rolling back some Trump-era policies. In 2022, the Biden administration also repealed a rule known as “Remain in Mexico” that required asylum seekers to wait at the border until their claims were adjudicated.
But the White House quickly realized that its policies would not stem the influx of migrants once pandemic restrictions were lifted. Instead, migrants began arriving at the southern border in record numbers. Border Patrol reported 1,659,206 encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021, up from previous highs of 1,643,679 in 2000 and 1,615,844 in 1986. exceeded.
President Trump and his supporters blamed the influx on Biden’s lax policies. The Biden administration has blamed the migration on other factors, including seasonal changes, recent hurricanes in Central America and misinformation spread by smugglers.
Nevertheless, immigrants continue to come. And then it comes. Texas border cities like El Paso and Eagle Pass are at times overwhelmed by an unprecedented influx of people, depleting local resources and prompting desperate calls from the federal government for help. Texas Governor Greg Abbott escalated the border battle by appointing state troopers to patrol the border in defiance of the federal government. He has also begun busing migrants to cities around the country that he calls sanctuary cities, a move the White House has called a “political stunt.”
Since then, major cities such as New York, Chicago and Denver have struggled to care for the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived. The White House said the stalled bipartisan border bill would include $1.4 billion in funding for cities and states and expedited work permits for eligible immigrants.
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