Trump and Biden will visit the US‑Mexico border in view of the migrant crisis
President Joe Biden is scheduled for an uncommon trip to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, coinciding with former President Donald Trump's visit to the southern border on the same day.
4:23 AM EST, February 29, 2024
Candidates head south
During his trip, Biden plans to engage with US Border Patrol agents, law enforcement officials, and local leaders in Brownsville to deliberate on the necessity of a border agreement, as stated by a White House official. Brownsville and Eagle Pass are roughly 300 miles apart from each other.
"Biden will travel to Brownsville, Texas, to meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement officials, and local leaders. (...) He will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades (...) He will reiterate his calls for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology, and more," - The White House said in a statement.
Competition on the border
According to CNN, Trump has frequently visited the border throughout his presidency and afterward. At an event close to the Texas-Mexico border in November, he intensified his anti-immigration statements and secured the support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott has independently acted to challenge Biden's control over border policy.
"House Republicans should stop playing politics and pass the bipartisan border agreement we reached in the Senate, the toughest and fairest reforms in decades," - we can read in Biden's statement on Twitter.
"From May 2023 to December 31, DHS removed or returned a record number of individuals—over 472,000—the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, including more than 78,800 individual family members," - report U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Source: NBC News, CNN