President Biden and former President Trump made dueling trips to the southern border on Thursday that had them in simultaneous meetings with local officials followed by back-to-back remarks.
The split-screen moment with Biden and Trump in locations hours apart offered the most glaring preview of how they will handle the hot-button issue of immigration and compete over other matters in 2024.
Biden visited Brownsville, Texas, where he met with Border Patrol agents and chastised congressional Republicans who fell in line behind Trump to oppose a bipartisan border security deal, which was later scrapped from a larger aid bill.
Trump, meanwhile, was joined in Eagle Pass by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and local law enforcement.
Here are five takeaways from the dueling trips.
2024 election preview
Thursday’s competing visits served as a preview of the general election campaign that will occupy the next eight months, with Biden and Trump on track to square off in November.
Fox News showed a literal split screen at one point of Biden chatting with Border Patrol agents while Trump received a briefing from the governor and local law enforcement.
For Trump, the visit to the border was on more comfortable terrain. Cracking down on immigration has been part of his agenda and speeches since he ran for the White House in 2016. He made multiple trips to the border during his time in office, and polling has shown voters trust him more than Biden on the issue of immigration and border security.
For Biden, it was a chance to try and flip the script on a political liability. The president visited the border last year, but immigration is shaping up to be a significant election year issue, and Democrats believe he is better off confronting it head-on than ignoring it.
“We hope this is just the beginning of many more visits to our region, not only in this presidency, but in the next,” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) said.
Blame game
Both Trump and Biden accused the other of being responsible for the state of the southern border, where there have been record levels of apprehensions in recent months and a backlog of court cases for those waiting for hearings.
For Trump and his allies, the surge in migration and a spate of recent high-profile crimes involving migrants were a sign of Biden’s failed policies.
“This is a Joe Biden invasion. This is a Biden invasion,” Trump said, claiming the U.S. was being “overrun by Biden migrant crime.” He specifically pointed to the death of Laken Riley, a University of Georgia student who was killed last week. Police charged a Venezuelan migrant in the case.
Brandon Judd, the president of the Border Patrol union, said Biden’s policies “continue to invite people” to come across the border.
Biden, meanwhile, bemoaned that Trump had discouraged Republicans from backing a bipartisan border security bill that had the support of the Border Patrol union, the Chamber of Commerce and The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Congressional Republicans fell in line behind Trump to tank the legislation.
“The truth is, Donald Trump doesn’t want to secure the border. He prefers chaos and cruelty because he’s betting it helps him politically,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Last time he was in office, kids were held in cages, families were ripped apart, and violent crime skyrocketed. It’s a bad bet — one that he will pay for at the ballot box this November.”
But Biden did strike a different and more conciliatory tone at one point as he looked for a path forward.
“I understand my predecessor’s in Eagle Pass today,” the president said. “So here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: Instead of playing politics with the issue, 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.”
Eagle Pass vs. Brownsville
Trump chose to travel to Eagle Pass with Abbott to highlight an area experiencing an influx of migrants that has been the epicenter of issues between state officials and the Biden administration.
The border crossing in Eagle Pass has led to state troopers filing the area, as well as long lines of migrants, buses, razor wire and a lack of U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Texas officials blocked Border Patrol out of parts of Eagle Pass and took control of a riverfront park earlier this year. The Texas National Guard prevented private citizens, city officials and Border Patrol officers from entering the park.
Abbott accused Biden of visiting a “sanitized location” that did not give the president a clear picture of the situation.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas explained the decision for the president to travel to Brownsville on Thursday, saying the location “provides a very good glimpse of how dynamic and challenging the migration phenomenon is.”
He said in April and May of 2023, approximately 30 percent of all border crossings were in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which includes Brownsville. He said now those numbers have been reduced, which he attributed to enhanced law enforcement in Mexico.
Mayorkas added that because Biden spoke to the Mexican president, Mexico has renewed their enforcement efforts.
Impeached Mayorkas joins Biden
Mayorkas traveled from Washington, D.C., to Texas with Biden on Thursday, just two weeks after he was impeached by the House over GOP opposition to his handling of the border.
He flew on Air Force One with the president, spoke to reporters and stood by Biden’s side throughout the visit and during his remarks.
“Though Congress has not yet provided the resources we need, [the Department of Homeland Security] will continue to enforce the law and work to secure our border,” Mayorkas said in Brownsville.
The House impeached Mayorkas on Feb. 13 in a narrow 214-213 vote after their first effort failed. It was the first impeachment of a Cabinet official since the 1870s. After that, the White House insisted Mayorkas would go forward with business as usual and that the impeachment wouldn’t impact his work.
The Senate is now eying an impeachment trial after Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Whip John Thune (S.D.), the top GOP leaders, earlier this week called for the upper chamber to conduct a full trial, but one has not yet been put on the Senate calendar.
No executive actions announced
Biden didn’t use his visit to Texas to make an announcement about a unilateral move to curb the influx of migrants at the border.
Biden had been wrestling with whether to take executive action on how asylum claims are handled at the southern border, a move that would take some of the blame off of him for the situation. But, reporting that Biden is considering that option already angered progressives, and such executive action would likely be hit with legal challenges.
During his visit, he steered clear of any policy announcements and instead pushed House Republicans to take up the Senate-negotiated and White House-endorsed bipartisan border deal.
Mayorkas suggested on the way to Texas that Biden wouldn’t be announcing any unilateral new actions while in the state.
“There will not be any executive actions announced today,” Mayorkas told reporters. “The legislation is what we need; it is the enduring solution. Actions taken outside of legislation are often met with litigation challenges in court.”