President Joe Biden called on Donald Trump to work with him on border security instead of ‘playing politics.’
He told his likely rival in the 2024 presidential race that they should work together for the American people.
Biden was in Brownsville, Texas, to tour the border and call on House Republicans to pass a bipartisan border security bill already approved by the Senate. Trump, who was conducting his own tour of the border in Eagle Pass has opposed the legislation.
President Joe Biden asked Donald Trump to work with him on border security
The president then reached out to his rival and asked him to work together.
‘I understand my predecessor is in Eagle Pass. Here’s what I’d say to Mr. Trump,’ Biden said. ‘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.’
‘We can do it together. You know and I know that it’s the toughest, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen,’ he added. ‘Instead of playing politics, just get together and get it done. Let’s remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic party, the Republican party. We work for the American people.’
Biden also reiteriated his call for Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the border security bill to the floor. Conservatives oppose the measure, saying it needs to be stronger.
‘It would pass,’ the president said of the legislation. ‘The majority of Democrats and Republicans support this legislation.’
‘We need to act. It’s time.’
Border agents briefed Biden on their needs for the border, talking about how they needed more personnel and more technology to combat illegal crossings.
Biden had one of his cheat sheets with him, which he referenced as he asked questions.
Donald Trump toured the border in Eagle Pass, Texas
Biden holds a cheat sheet in his hand as he gets a briefing from border agents
Ahead of his remarks, Biden met with border agents along the banks of the Rio Grande.
The president’s trip panned by critics as a campaign ‘photo op’ began with his motorcade driving along the 20-foot fence separating the United States and Mexico.
The 81-year-old then met with members of the Border Patrol, hours after the head of their union warned Biden to ‘keep our name out of your mouth’.
The 2024 rivals headed to Texas with recent polls showing immigration becoming the number one concern for most Americans.
As the president, 81, was given a tour of the migrant crossing area, security was tight. A boat was in the water, trucks and ATVs surrounded the area, and a drone flew overhead.
Nearby, cars flying Trump flags were parked where Biden could see them. At the airport, the president was greeted with protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Biden stood by the river, speaking to the agents, as Donald Trump, his presumed 2024 presidential rival, arrived at Eagle Pass for his own tour at the busy migrant passage area 324 miles away.
President Biden gets a tour of the border from CBP agents at the Rio Grande River in Brownsville, Texas
As the president, 81, was given a tour of the migrant crossing area, security was tight. A boat was in the water, trucks and ATVs surrounded the area, and a drone flew overhead
Biden arrived in Texas about 30 minutes after Trump. Biden brought his Homeland Security secretary for his meeting with border agents and local officials. Trump has Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott with him and the head of the Border Patrol Agents’ union.
The messages of their trips are entirely different. Biden will push for House Republicans to approve a bipartisan border security bill already passed by the Senate.
Trump will decry Biden’s border policies for letting in record numbers of migrants.
‘It’s good weather. Beautiful day but a very dangerous border. We’re going to take care of it,’ Trump told reporters upon his arrival.
Trump then met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been in a face-off with the Biden administration over dealing with the surge in migrants
Trump met with Abbott and got briefed about efforts to shut down crossings in Eagle Pass
The area is the sight of a clash between the Biden administration and Texas officials over authorities at the border
Abbott has activated Guard units to install razor wire in an effort to keep out migrants
Gov. Abbott, giving Trump his tour told the former president: ‘This is a port of entry. There’s no reason for these people to be crossing between a port of entry. Remember one thing, no one drowns on a bridge. They drowned trying to come across here because Joe Biden entices them if not forces them to come here.’
The White House has defended the president, saying its House Republicans engaged in a ‘political stunt.’
While in Brownsville, Biden will ‘meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, frontline personnel, and local leaders to discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement,’ a White House official said.
Biden is considering executive orders that would move to shut down the border to new arrivals if more than an average of 5,000 migrants per day tried to cross unlawfully in the course of a week, or more than 8,500 tried to cross in a day.
President Biden was given a tour of the border at the Rio Grande
Donald Trump getting a tour of the border as Joe Biden gets his
The leaders’ locations are also a contrast in images. Trump is in Eagle Pass, which remains a migration hot spot while crossings in Brownsville have dropped dramatically.
The main thrust of Biden’s message will be about House Republicans’s failure to pass a bipartisan border package already approved by the Senate. Conservatives argue the legislation is not strong enough to combat illegal immigration.
The bill included over $20 billion for border security that would add new Customs and Border Patrol agents, add more asylum officers to increase that process time, and add more immigration judges.
Democrats accuse the GOP of election year politics. Trump, who is Biden’s likely rival in the 2024 presidential election, has come out against the legislation.
The former president, while he is in Eagle Pass, will blast Biden on the record high number of illegal crossings and the murder of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student. An illegal immigrant was arrested and charged with the crime.
His campaign has accused Biden of piggy-backing onto Trump’s decision to visit the border, which the White House denies.
Security it tight for Joe Biden’s border visit
President Joe Biden (R) greets Brownsville Mayor John Cowen upon arrival at Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport in Brownsville, Texas
There was a lot of trash but no sign of migrants at Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texas
Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas, on the same day Biden is in Brownsville, Texas
Texas National Guard talk to migrants making an illegal crossing in Eagle Pass, where there is still a lot of border traffic
In Brownsville, border crossings have dropped dramatically in the past months, after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had miles of the wire fencing installed 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 out to about 17 per day.
That makes Brownsville, Texas, the 29th busiest border patrol station for the month. The number one station was Three Points in Tucson, Arizona, sector, which has recorded more than 13,900 apprehensions in February.
Brownsville could give Biden a platform to argue illegal crossings have dropped dramatically given it was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings for nine years.
But Republicans have called it something else: a ‘photo-op.’
Speaker Mike Johnson accused Biden of going merely for the optics.
‘Brownsville is the 29th ranked hotspot. Why would he go to the 29th? Because he doesn’t really want to see the reality,’ he said Thursday.
At a House Republican leadership news conference, many of the leaders repeatedly accused Biden of a ‘photo op.’
‘President Biden goes down to the border today for a photo op,’ Majority Leader Steve Scalise said. ‘He has the authority today to fix this problem that he created.’
The White House has said it’s House Republicans who are turning the border into a ‘political stunt.’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against GOP criticism of Biden’s trip, noting it was House Republicans who refused to bring up a vote on a bipartisan border security bill after Trump came out against it.
‘Oh, it’s very different. What House Republicans have done is nothing, absolutely nothing. If anything, they consistently get in the way,’ she said during her press briefing.
‘They are turning this into a political stunt by listening to Donald Trump and saying that they need to kill it. This is what they’ve been doing and making it political where the President got his team now directed his team to work with senators, both Republicans and Democrats to get a bill done.’
Members of the Texas National Guard on patrol at the border – crossings have gone down since Republican Gov. Greg Abbott installed fencing
Last May, before the fencing was installed, lines of immigrants wait at Camp Monument to be processed into the country
The border wall between Brownsville, Texas, and Mexico
Brownsville has a predominantly Hispanic population, which, at 93.9%, is the third-highest proportion of Hispanic Americans of any city in the U.S.
It’s proximation to the border and heavy Hispanic community had made it a hot spot for illegal immigration. Also, with 200,000 people, it’s one of the larger cities in the country and able to absorb the migrant influx.
The city is also a Democratic stronghold. And it has a large bus station and airport for migrants to use to leave for other destinations.
Biden and Trump’s trips come as the immigration issue ratches to the forefront of the campaign.
They also come a few days before the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5, when more than a dozen states hold Republican nominating contests.
Both men have railed against each other on the border issue as they try to turn it into election year fodder.
There have been record crossings of the border during Biden’s administration, a fact Trump and Republicans have hammered him on.
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 turn the narrative on the issue, blaming Trump and House Republicans for refusing to support the bipartisan Senate bill. Conservatives argue that piece of legislation didn’t go far enough.
The bill included over $20 billion for border security that would add new Customs and Border Patrol agents, add more asylum officers to increase that process time, and add more immigration judges.
The president also has been under pressure from Democrats, including governors, mayors and senators in border states, to do more on the issue.
His first trip to the southern border was in January 2023, when Biden spent about four hours on the ground in El Paso, Texas.
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