The United States president, Joe Biden, and his predecessor and potential November rival, Donald Trump (2017-2021), traveled to the southern border on Thursday, highlighting migration as the centerpiece of their campaigns. The visit underscored how the anti-immigration rhetoric from the Republican Party and from Trump has pushed Democrats toward tougher positions.
In Brownsville, a city bordering Matamoros in Mexico, Biden spoke about the need to advance a controversial bipartisan bill that would limit asylum rights at the border in exchange for Republican backing to continue funding Ukraine and Israel in their defense against Russia and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The agreement stalled in the Senate, opposed by Republicans urged by Trump, who publicly rejected the bill. Biden told reporters gathered with Border Patrol agents and immigration officials, “This is what I say to Mr. Trump: join me or I’ll join you so we can urge Congress to pass the bipartisan border security bill.”
Around 500 kilometers away, in Eagle Pass, which borders Piedras Negras in Mexico, Trump criticized Biden and his immigration policies, accusing him of keeping the border open despite the incumbent’s substantial asylum restrictions. The former president reiterated his usual xenophobic remarks about migrants, claiming they are “terrorists” arriving from “jails and mental institutions.” “They are coming into our country. And that is horrible,” Trump said, calling Biden the “probably the most incompetent president in American history” and tying rising border crossings to crime in the country.
During fiscal year 2023, more than 2.4 million migrant detentions were recorded at the Texas border, a record high. “When someone broke the law, we arrested and deported them. We did great work. Then there was an election, and afterward a lot of things changed. The situation shifted in Texas and across the country,” claimed the Republican leader.
Trump had promised this week on his Truth Social platform that if reelected he would carry out “the largest deportation of illegal criminals in U.S. history,” and he also warned about the challenges posed by what he described as an “invasion” of migrants. “We don’t have people who speak their languages. They’re coming into our country bringing huge problems, including health issues,” he asserted.
Biden stressed the need for a migrant pact, noting the current resource shortages faced by frontline workers: “More agents, more officers, more judges, more equipment to secure our border,” he stated.
Earlier this week, the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala held a trilateral summit to boost cooperation on immigration, including the creation of a working group to jointly address present challenges. The public appearances by Trump and Biden almost overlapped and occurred just days before a pivotal electoral milestone: March 5, known as Super Tuesday, when a dozen states hold primaries. Both leaders remain frontrunners for their party nominations in the November elections.