Biden, Trump make dueling border visits

(CN) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump appeared just hours away from each other at different towns along the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday ahead of the March 5 primary and as the immigration debate emerges as a central campaign issue.

Biden’s visit to Brownsville was described as an “operational briefing” where the president had an opportunity to meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, local law enforcement officials and frontline personnel while continuing to push for the passage of the bipartisan border security bill that failed in the Senate earlier this month.

The president landed at Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport just before 2pm local time on Thursday. He was joined on Air Force One by Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other officials. Biden, sporting a dark blue ball cap, immediately departed for a tour of the border.

Trump meanwhile arrived about 300 miles away in Eagle Pass at around the same time, where he visited the Texas National Guard headquarters with Governor Greg Abbott and Texas National Guard leaders for a border briefing before shaking hands with guard members and speaking to reporters.

"This is a Joe Biden invasion," Trump said. "This is a Biden invasion over the past three years, I call him 'crooked Joe' because he's crooked and he's a terrible president, the worst president this country's ever had and probably the most incompetent president we've ever had."

Trump blamed Biden for the killing of a Georgia nursing student last week in a case that has added fuel to the immigration debate after authorities arrested a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally.

"The monster that [was] charged in the death is an illegal alien migrant who was led into our country and released into our communities by crooked Joe Biden, he's crooked, I took the name away from Hillary because she's no longer relevant, I guess, she was terrible but what he is doing is unbelievable."

The dueling border visits from the two likely opponents in November come as public concern over illegal immigration soars higher than it was under the prior two administrations and the issue emerges as a political flashpoint, polling in Texas and nationwide found.

In October, Biden asked Congress to pass an emergency spending package of more than $100 billion for Israel, Taiwan and the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans at the time opposed providing any foreign policy money without changes to immigration law and border security.

But despite a bipartisan package that included stricter border security provisions with billions of dollars in aid, the bill collapsed amid pressure on Republicans from Trump, who was unwilling to let Biden seize an election year victory over immigration.

Biden reiterated on Thursday that he is still willing to work with lawmakers to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement while delivering remarks before a small crowd at the Brownsville Border Patrol station shortly after Trump wrapped up his comments.

He urged the Senate to reconsider the bill and asked senators who opposed it "to set politics aside" before sending a message directly to Trump.

"Instead of playing politics, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill," Biden said. "We can do it together, you know and I know it's the toughest, most efficient most effective border security bill this country has ever seen. So instead of playing politics with the issue why don't we just get together and get it done."

But Biden’s first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since January 2023 wasn't just criticized by Trump and the Republicans; the president was also met with anger from progressive organizations and local advocates who said his visit was a wasted opportunity.

“Our message to President Biden is: Why come to the border and not meet with the community organizations? Why spend your opportunity visiting our home to promote anti-immigrant legislation?” said Dani Marrero Hi, deputy director of the immigration group La Union del Pueblo Entero.

Hi said during a Brownsville rally that Biden is missing out on the chance to learn from the expertise of community organizations and to hear stories from advocates who have spent decades on the ground assisting asylum seekers and immigrants.

“We see that as a wasted opportunity,” Hi said. “Even if he won’t invite us, we’re going to make sure that our voices are heard and we’re going to make sure that he receives the message that the Rio Grande Valley will not be used as political theater or a backdrop to promote anti-immigrant legislation.”

Similar messages critical of Biden’s snub came from leaders representing the Texas Civil Rights Project, Frontera Fund, Voces Unidas and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice at a rally where supporters chanted “si se puede!” and carried signs with slogans like "say no to racism" and "stop criminalizing immigrants."

White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said Biden’s main focus of the border trip was for the president to see firsthand what the Border Patrol needs and what the border security bill would deliver if passed.

Trump defeated Biden in Texas in the 2020 presidential election with 52.06% of the vote to Biden’s 46.48%, a difference of about 630,000 votes. Trump’s margin of victory in the state was slightly smaller in that election when compared to 2016 when he defeated Clinton by just under 9 percentage points or about 806,000 votes.

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