Joe Biden fired a broadside at Donald Trump on Thursday and told Republican lawmakers to “show a little spine” and pass border legislation, as the US president moved to defuse an immigration debate that threatens his re-election campaign.
Biden was speaking on a trip to Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border, while his likely 2024 rival Donald Trump used his own visit to Eagle Pass, a border town 250 miles away to blame the president for an “invasion” of immigrants.
“Its time for the Speaker and some of my Republican friends in Congress who are blocking this bill to show a little spine,” Biden told a crowd in Brownsville, referring to a recent bipartisan Senate bill that fell apart after Trump told allies on Capitol Hill not to advance it.
“I understand my predecessor is in Eagle Pass today. So here is what I would say to Mr Trump: Instead of playing politics with this 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 security bill.”
Biden added: “Instead of playing politics with this issue why don’t we just get together and get it done.”
The president’s visit came as a poll published by Gallup this week showed 28 per cent of Americans now consider immigration to be the country’s biggest problem, up from 20 per cent in January.
Mounting Republican attacks on the White House’s handling of the US’s southern border — where so-called “encounters” have soared from 1.7mn a year to about 2.5mn since Biden took office in 2021 — and dark language from Trump about migrants have thrust the issue to the centre of the election race.
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, has propelled the issue on to the national stage through a campaign of busing migrants to Democratic cities in the north-east and west coast.
“This is a Joe Biden invasion,” said Trump, speaking on Thursday during a trip to Eagle Pass, a city at the centre of tense disputes between local and federal officials over powers to curb border crossings.
Border crossings could reach “millions and millions” by inauguration day in January, said Trump, who had once promised to build a wall along the border to halt migration from Mexico. He added that Biden had “the blood of countless victims” of “migrant crime” on his hands.
FBI data shows a fall in violent crime recently, even has immigration has surged, with the number of violent crimes reported by the bureau down 8 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 versus the same period a year earlier.
But the recent killing of a woman in Georgia allegedly by a Venezuelan immigrant has become a new rallying cry for Republicans critical of federal border policy.
Biden arrived in the early afternoon local time in Brownsville, which was festooned with flags and bunting for its annual Charro Days festival celebrating the area’s Mexican heritage on both sides of the Rio Grande river.
As border crossings have risen, Brownsville has been less inundated with asylum claims than other cities along the almost 2,000 mile frontier, such as Eagle Pass, where federal officials were forced to shut border crossing points on multiple occasions last year as they redeployed agents to deal with the surge.
Some locals saw political cynicism in the candidates’ border visits, with each selecting towns that fit their political message.
“They’re sending Biden to a low-impact place during a binational party when everything is cleaned up and they can say ‘look how good it is’,” said Scott Fry, a local engineer and flood manager. “Meanwhile Trump is going to Eagle Pass and he can say ‘look how bad it is’.”
The border deal thrashed out between Republicans and Democrats in the US Senate would have led to a sharp increase in border-patrol staffing, asylum officers and immigration judges, as well as providing the president with emergency powers to shut down the frontier.
It also included funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza — making the border issue part of wider congressional fighting over US budgetary priorities.
Despite gaining support from Senate Republicans, the deal fell apart after Trump signalled that he did not want it to pass. Critics said Trump was loath to hand Biden a political victory in an election year, particularly when the former president has centred his political message around immigration issues.
“Joe Biden lied to America when he told America that he needed Congress to pass laws for him to be able to do something about the border,” Trump said on Thursday.
Both Eagle Pass and Brownsville have long been Democratic strongholds, but Republicans have made gains in both as the surge in crossings — and the redeployment of border agents to deal with the situation — has caused frustration among voters.
“The problem I see is the long waits in the lines — for commerce and for tourism,” said Arturo Travino, whose family own construction and retail businesses on both sides of the border.
“Most of the [border patrol] workforce is being directed to the immigration problem and they aren’t taking care of regular issues.”
That sentiment was echoed by others who expressed frustration over the disruption to day-to-day crossings that border communities have depended on for years.
“We’re international — people here have family on both sides of the border,” said Joseph Linck, a former director of the Port of Brownsville. “Everyone wants to go and see grandma — and they can’t. And that is what is going to hurt Biden.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor in Washington
