Former President Donald J. President Biden plans to make a rare visit to the southern border on Thursday, according to plans by two people traveling to Brownsville, Texas, on the same day that Trump already plans a trip to the border.
Mr. The plans underscore the urgency Biden and his team have on immigration, which has become one of his most pressing political responsibilities. Under the Biden administration, record numbers of immigrants have crossed the southern border — Mr. Mr. Trump and Republicans They have used it aggressively against Biden.
Most Americans think Mr. Biden disagrees with job performance and opinion polls program Voters who disapprove of him cite immigration as a reason more than any other policy issue.
On his Thursday trip to Brownsville, Mr. A White House official said Biden plans to meet with Border Patrol, law enforcement and local officials. The president is expected to lay the blame for the migration crisis on House Republicans, who have blocked a bipartisan package that would have enacted tougher border controls, and call on Congress to come together to face the challenge.
Mr. Biden is considering executive action to prevent border crossers from seeking asylum, but he is not expected to announce any new executive action during his Thursday visit, the person said. It is not clear on what day he will travel, or make public comments.
Mr Trump will visit Eagle Pass in Texas on Thursday. CNN reported the planned trip last week. To highlight the immigration crisis, Mr. To lay the blame at Mr. Biden's feet and to offer comments from the border. Mr. Trump, who is not authorized to discuss the plans publicly, plans to A person close to Trump says.
Mr. Trump is expected to highlight crimes committed by immigrants in New York and other cities, as well as the recent high-profile arrest of an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. murder of a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia, the person added.
On Monday, Mr. After news of Biden's visit was announced, Mr. Trump sought to blame his rival for the killing, writing on his social media site, “When I am your president, we will immediately seal the border and stop the invasion. , and on day one, we will begin the largest deportation of illegal criminals in American history!”
The visit to Brownsville, which historically felt the effects of illegal crossings on the rise, comes as the White House tries to prioritize its political strategy at the border. For most of his tenure, Mr. Biden and his aides have avoided talking publicly about the border, although his senior aides have warned early on that the migration crisis could erode his support with voters.
Republicans Mr. Biden's aides have spent months debating whether to put in place more enforcement-minded policies at the border to combat the surge in immigration as Biden accuses him of lax border security.
But for several months at the border Mr. After denouncing Biden, House Republicans blocked a bipartisan immigration bill because Mr. Trump doesn't want Mr Biden to score a policy victory.
Mr. Biden's senior aides say the opposition allowed the White House to go on the offensive and accuse Republicans of simply playing politics at the border and failing to actually defuse the crisis. Democratic officials have pressed the White House to attack Republicans for walking away from a package that includes the kinds of restrictions that even Trump allies have called for over the years.
“The border is in chaos,” Mr. Biden told donors last week in Los Altos Hills, California. “They don't have the staff.” Republicans won't even give the government money for “bentanyl-detecting machines,” he said.
“That doesn't say anything about political courage, what it says about the party's position,” Mr. Biden said.
If an average of 5,000 migrants try to cross illegally a day in a week or more than 8,500 try to cross on a given day, Mr. The executive order Biden is considering. It could be blocked by the courts, but even issuing such an order would allow the White House to deflect accusations of crisis avoidance and keep Republicans under pressure to reach a legislative compromise.
However, where it stops is uncertain. In a White House meeting with governors on Friday during the National Governors Association conference, Mr. Biden to Governors, Mr. He said lawyers told him he couldn't use the measures Trump had. It is not clear which authority he is referring to.
With a visit to the border, Mr. The White House appeared to be hoping to avoid the political backlash it faced when Biden took nearly a year off. In a small town.
Mr. Trump filled the void and visited the community in February 2023, just weeks after the derailment, prompting accusations that Mr Biden had ignored the crisis.