BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump visited the southern border Thursday in a dramatic split-screen moment as the 2024 presidential campaign ramps up over an issue that has confounded administrations of both parties for decades: immigration.
The president’s briefing from border officials here began just moments after Trump began his remarks in Eagle Pass, Texas. Biden thanked border agents and said he would get them more resources “come hell or high water.”
“It’s long past time to act,” the president said, adding that border control “desperately” needs more resources.
Biden made a direct appeal to Trump, asking the former president to join him in telling Congress to pass the bill, which was tanked after Trump rallied his allies in Congress against it.
“You know and I know it’s the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country’s ever seen,” Biden said. “So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don’t we just get together and get it done?”
The president touted the bipartisan border bill as “a win for the American people,” calling it a “truly bipartisan initiative.” He called on the Senate to reconsider the bill, asking senators to “set politics aside” and for Speaker Mike Johnson to put the bill on the floor.
“We need to act,” Biden said, adding that Republicans in Congress needed to “show a little spine.”
Trump’s national press secretary hit back on Biden’s appeal to advance the border bill.
“Instead of shifting the blame on everyone but himself, Joe Biden should take responsibility for the border crisis, deaths, and destruction that his policies have caused, say Laken Riley’s name, and use his executive power to shut the border down today,” said Karoline Leavitt in a statement.
In his remarks, Trump called the death of Riley, a 22-year-old graduate nursing student who was killed this month while on a jog near the University of Georgia, “barbaric” and referred to her as “a beautiful young woman.”
Conservatives across the country have pointed to Riley’s death as an example of migrant crime after an undocumented Venezuelan migrant was charged in connection with her death.
Trump revealed Thursday that he spoke to Riley’s parents the previous day. “They’re incredible people that are devastated beyond belief,” he said.
Trump also called the migrant crisis a “Joe Biden invasion” and a “vicious violation to our country.”
The trip to the border was Biden’s second since taking office. His first was to El Paso in January 2023. This time, he visited Brownsville, a border town in the Rio Grande Valley that has long felt the impacts of migration up close.
Critics of the administration have pointed out that Biden is visiting Brownsville at a time when the direst consequences of the migrant influx have shifted elsewhere. Many more immigrants are now crossing at other parts of the border, such as Arizona and Eagle Pass, according to Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that includes the Border Patrol.
Trump has visited the border many times before — and he announced his trip before the White House did. Biden said this week that he’d been planning to go but that he didn’t know “his good friend” would be there the same day. Two senior administration officials said the timing of the trip was meant to maximize its political impact a week before the State of the Union address. One of the officials said “we welcome the split screen” with Trump.
“Nice weather. Beautiful day. But a very dangerous border. We’re going to take care of it,” Trump told reporters after arriving in Texas.
Trump joked of Biden on a radio show this week: “Well, we found out how to get him…
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