President Biden is scheduled to make an unusual visit to the southern border on Thursday, a spokesman said, heading to Brownsville, Texas, on the same day former President Donald J. Trump also already scheduled a border visit.
The plan underscores the urgency with which Biden and his team are currently pushing immigration, making it one of his most serious political responsibilities. Under the Biden administration, record numbers of migrants are crossing the southern border, a fact that Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are using aggressively against Mr. Biden.
A majority of Americans disapprove of Biden's performance, and polls show that voters say they disapprove more of immigration than any other policy issue.
Biden's press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that during a visit to Brownsville on Thursday, Biden will meet with Border Patrol, law enforcement and local officials. Biden did not directly answer reporters' questions on Monday about whether he would meet with migrants in person.
The president has placed the blame for the immigration crisis on House Republicans, who are expected to block a bipartisan package that would have imposed tougher restrictions at the border and call on Congress to unite to tackle the challenge. .
Biden said he planned the trip without knowing Trump would also visit the border.
“I planned it on Thursday. What I didn't know was that my best friend was apparently going to go,” Biden told reporters during a visit to New York, apparently referring to Trump.
Mr. Biden is considering executive action that would effectively block people from crossing the border from seeking asylum, but Mr. Jean-Pierre declined to say what new policies he would introduce.
“What he's going for is action,” she said. “He takes this very seriously.”
Trump will visit Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday. CNN reported on the travel plans last week.
Mr. Trump plans to deliver remarks highlighting the migrant crisis from the border and laying blame at Mr. Biden's feet, according to a person close to Mr. Trump who was not authorized to publicly discuss the plan.
Trump said he would focus not only on the recent arrest of an illegal Venezuelan immigrant in the high-profile murder of a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia, but also on crimes committed by immigrants in New York and other cities. It is expected. Added.
On Monday, after news of Biden's visit broke, Trump wrote on his social media site, “If I become president, I will immediately close the border and stop the invasion,” and blamed the killer. tried to blame it on a rival. And on the first day, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history! ”
Biden's visit to Brownsville comes as the White House seeks to pivot its political strategy at the border, which has historically been the backdrop of surges in illegal immigration. Biden and his aides have avoided talking publicly about the border issue for much of his tenure, but his senior aides said early on that the immigration crisis could hurt his support with voters. Even though he had been warned.
In the face of calls to visit the border in 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris described the move as a “grand gesture” focused on addressing the fundamental problems of immigration, but He said he eventually visited El Paso in response to pressure.
Biden's aides have spent months debating whether to introduce more enforcement-oriented policies at the border to combat the surge in migrants, as Republicans accuse him of being weak on border security.
But after months of attacking Biden on the border, House Republicans watered down the bipartisan immigration bill. This is partly because Trump did not want Biden to win on policy.
Senior Biden aides believe the opposition authorized the attack on the White House and accuse Republicans of playing border politics and failing to actually de-escalate the crisis. Democratic officials are also pressuring the White House to attack Republicans for walking away from policies that include the kind of restrictions that even Trump's allies have long called for.
“The border is a mess. They don't have the resources,” Biden told donors in Los Altos Hills, California, last week. He said Republicans wouldn't even give the government money “for machines to detect incoming fentanyl.”
“It's not about what you say about political courage, it's about what you say about the state of your party,” Biden said.
The executive order Biden is considering would close the border for new arrivals if an average of 5,000 or more immigrants attempt to enter the country illegally per day in a week, or if 8,500 or more immigrants attempt to enter the country illegally per day. The contents are to be blocked. Although likely to be blocked by the courts, such an order, if issued, would allow the White House to fend off accusations that it is avoiding the crisis and put pressure on Republicans to seek legislative compromise. will continue to give.
However, it is unclear where it is located. Mr. Biden met with governors at the White House on Friday during a National Governors Association conference and was told by his lawyers that measures similar to Mr. Trump's cannot be used, two people familiar with the remarks said. It was unclear which authority he specifically referred to.
“There is no executive action like there would be in a bipartisan Senate-negotiated proposal,” Jean-Pierre said. “There was bipartisan agreement in the Senate, and it took four months. Republicans got in the way because of Donald Trump's direction.”
The White House said the border visit would avoid the kind of political backlash Biden faced when he visited East Palestine, Ohio, nearly a year after a train derailed south of Norfolk and released toxic materials. It seems like he wants to avoid it. In a small town.
Mr. Trump filled that gap, visiting the community in February 2023, weeks after the derailment, and accusing Mr. Biden of ignoring the crisis.
