President Joe Biden left for the border on Thursday, heading to a site where crossings are at their lowest level as the White House denies accusations that he is in for a “photo opportunity.”
Biden travels to Brownsville, Texas, the same day Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas. The cities are about 300 miles apart and the two men are not expected to interact.
But Eagle Pass remains a hot spot for migration, while crossings in Brownsville have decreased dramatically. He once saw 10,000 a day.
Biden, wearing sneakers with suit pants and a jacket, spoke about a ceasefire in Gaza before leaving the White House, but did not discuss his trip.
President Joe Biden leaves the White House for his second trip to the border
White House officials have defended the president, saying House Republicans engaged in a “political stunt.”
While in Brownsville, Biden ‘will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, front-line personnel and local leaders to discuss the urgent need to pass the bipartisan Senate border security agreement,’ an official said from the White House.
Biden is considering executive orders that would close the border to new arrivals if more than an average of 5,000 migrants per day attempted to cross illegally over the course of a week, or more than 8,500 attempted to cross in one day.
The president is accompanied on his trip by Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, Representative Vicente González, local elected officials, as well as personnel from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Citizenship and United States Immigration. (USCIS).
Biden will be briefed on border security operations and then make public comments about the need for House Republicans to approve a bipartisan border package already approved by the Senate. Conservatives argue the legislation is not strong enough to combat illegal immigration.
The bill included more than $20 billion for border security that would add new Customs and Border Patrol agents, add more asylum officers to increase processing time and add more immigration judges.
Democrats accuse the Republican Party of playing politics in an election year. Trump, who is Biden’s likely rival in the 2024 presidential election, has come out against the legislation.
The former president, while in Eagle Pass, wiWe will criticize Biden for the record number of illegal crossings and the murder of Laken Riley, a nursing student from Georgia. An illegal immigrant was arrested and charged with the crime.
His campaign has accused Biden of taking advantage of Trump’s decision to visit the border, which the White House denies.
There was a lot of trash but no signs of migrants on the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texax.
Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas, the same day Biden will be in Brownsville, Texas
In Brownsville, border crossings have dropped sharply in recent months after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott installed miles of chain-link fencing as part of Operation Lone Star, which he signed into law in December.
Internal CBP data for all border patrol stations in February, obtained by Fox News, shows that the Brownsville area had about 462 apprehensions, which averages about 17 per day.
That makes Brownsville, Texas, the 29th busiest Border Patrol station of the month. The number one station was Three Points in the Tucson, Arizona sector, which recorded more than 13,900 arrests in February.
Brownsville could give Biden a platform to argue that illegal crossings have decreased dramatically given that it was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings for nine years.
But Republicans have called it something else: a ‘photo shoot’.
President Mike Johnson accused Biden of simply going for optics.
‘Brownsville is ranked 29th. Why would I go to 29? Because he really doesn’t want to see reality,” he said Thursday.
At a press conference of House Republican leaders, many of the leaders repeatedly accused Biden of taking a “picture.”
“President Biden is coming down to the border today to take a photo,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise. “Today he has the authority to solve this problem that he created.”
The White House has said it is House Republicans who are turning the border into a “political stunt.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to GOP criticism of Biden’s trip, noting that it was House Republicans who refused to bring up a vote on a bipartisan travel bill. border security after Trump spoke out against it.
‘Oh, it’s very different. What the Republicans in the House of Representatives have done is nothing, absolutely nothing. If anything, they always get in the way,” he stated during his press conference.
‘They are turning this into a political stunt by listening to Donald Trump and saying they need to take him down. This is what they’ve been doing and turning it into a political thing where the president got his team to now lead his team to work with senators, both Republicans and Democrats, to get a bill passed.’
Members of the Texas National Guard patrolling the border: Crossings have decreased since Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed fences.
Last May, before the fence was installed, lines of immigrants waited at Camp Monument to be processed into the country.
Local groups are also upset with the president’s quick visit, with one calling it a “press event.”
Voces Unidas RGV, part of the Southern Border Communities coalition, accused the White House of ignoring local needs “iIn exchange for a press event, ironically, to meet with law enforcement officials about border security.
“Despite these visits to the border, despite the press-friendly photos and quotes, we are not impressed with the Biden Administration’s lackluster commitment to our Texas border communities, especially our immigrant, low-income and mixed status,” the group said in a statement.
They asked Biden to sit down with the migrants.
“If President Biden seeks to be the public servant people need, he must take the time to sit down with underserved communities and listen to their position.”
Brownsville has a predominantly Hispanic population, which, at 93.9%, is the third highest proportion of Hispanic Americans of any US city.
Its proximity to the border and strong Hispanic community had made it a hot spot for illegal immigration. Furthermore, with 200,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest cities in the country and capable of absorbing the influx of immigrants.
The city is also a Democratic stronghold. And it has a great bus station and airport for migrants to use to leave for other destinations.
The border zone near Camp Monument, the area in Brownsville to process migrants
A welcome to the United States sign in Brownsville, Texas
The border wall between Brownsville, Texas and Mexico
Biden and Trump’s trips come as the issue of immigration comes to the forefront of the campaign.
They also come just days before the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5, when more than a dozen states hold elections for the Republican nomination.
Both men have criticized each other on the border issue as they try to make it an election year issue.
There have been record border crossings during the Biden administration, a fact that Trump and Republicans have stressed to him.
And, according to a Gallup poll, immigration is the most common issue mentioned by adult voters who disapprove of Biden’s performance.
The White House has been trying to change the narrative on the issue, blaming Trump and House Republicans for refusing to support the bipartisan Senate bill. Conservatives argue the legislation did not go far enough.
The bill included more than $20 billion for border security that would add new Customs and Border Patrol agents, add more asylum officers to increase processing time and add more immigration judges.
The president has also been under pressure from Democrats, including governors, mayors and senators from border states, to do more about it.
His first trip to the southern border was in January 2023, when Biden spent about four hours on the ground in El Paso, Texas.