Biden-Trump make dueling border visits as immigration dominates 2024 race

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had a split-screen moment during dual trips to the border on Thursday.

The likely frontrunners for their respective party's nomination in 2024 were about 300 miles apart in Texas — Biden was in Brownsville and Trump visited Eagle Pass. Immigration has dominated the early part of the 2024 campaign and both candidates have pointed a finger at the other on the issue.

Both Trump and Biden got tours of the border and met with local officials during their visits.

Here's what else happened:

• What Trump is saying: The former president has made Biden's handling of illegal immigration a centerpiece of his reelection effort. He has also vowed to conduct the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he wins the White House in November. Trump continued those attacks during remarks at the border, stoking fears about migrants and crime and blaming it on Biden. He praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has tried to implement a new controversial security initiative.
• What Biden is saying: The president's trip came as he considers sweeping executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum if they crossed illegally. Biden has repeatedly lambasted congressional Republicans for failing to pass a bipartisan compromise spending package that included significant concessions on border policy. Bipartisanship was a big theme of his remarks. He urged the Senate to reconsider the package and asked Trump to "join" him in finding an immigration solution.
• About this bipartisan deal: The deal was killed in the Senate earlier this month, largely due to opposition from Trump. It included a new emergency authority that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to shut down the border if certain triggers are met, raised the legal standard of proof to pass the initial screening for asylum, among other measures.  
• Meanwhile: A federal judge in Texas ruled to suspend enforcement of a controversial law that would allow state law enforcement agents to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. Without action from the court, the law was set to go into effect on Tuesday.

Eagle Pass resident Jessie Fuentes didn’t mince words as he spoke with reporters Thursday morning hours before former President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived in the border city.

“Mr. Trump, what you’re doing is you’re hurting the people that need the most help. Our community, if you were studying the demographics, it’s not easy being on the border. And this unwanted attention, this unwanted militarization of our community, is not welcome,” Fuentes said. “You are not welcome here, gentlemen. You’re not welcome in this community.”

Fuentes was among several community organizers and advocates who shared their views on different facets of their city Thursday morning.

Abbott announced plans to build an 80-acre base to house up to 1,800 Texas National Guard members near Eagle Pass. Trump, who is visiting with the governor, said he would enact a widespread expansion of his administration’s immigration policies that would restrict both legal and illegal immigration if he wins back the White House in November.

Amerika Garcia Grewal told reporters she feared what she’s seen happening in Eagle Pass could happen across the United States if more isn’t done to stop it. She described seeing shipping containers and concertina wire placed along the city’s river banks and encircling the community’s golf course.

“I love Eagle Pass, and I hate that we’re being made an example of,” she said. “We must say hate has no home here, otherwise it’s just going to get worse.”

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday stoked fears about migrants coming into the United States as railed against President Joe Biden and his border policies as he stood feet from the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. 

Trump attempted to tie crime in the US to recent increases in immigration — what he calls it “migrant crime” — despite there being little evidence indicating a connection between immigration and crime. Many researchers actually argue immigrants are less likely to commit crimes.

The former president said he spoke on Wednesday to the parents of 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was found dead after jogging on the University of Georgia campus. Trump has repeatedly invoked Riley’s death as he pushes for his hardline immigration policies because her suspected killer is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.

“These are the people that are coming into our country, and they're coming from jails and they're coming from prisons and they're coming from mental institution and they're coming from insane asylums and they're terrorists. They're being led into our country. And it's horrible,” Trump said as he repeated the typical anti-immigrant rhetoric he uses on the campaign trail. 

The former president praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has tried to implement a new controversial security initiative. The US Supreme Court recently allowed US Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire deployed by Abbott’s initiative at the US-Mexico border while the state’s legal challenge to the practice plays out. 

Trump’s trip to the border comes not long after Trump torpedoed a bipartisan border bill so he could continue campaigning on Biden’s perceived weakness on the border.

President Joe Biden is urging lawmakers to reconsider a bipartisan border package that was killed in the Senate earlier this month, in large part due to opposition from the GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump.

“The US Senate needs to reconsider this bill and those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside and pass it on the merits not on whether it's going to benefit one party or benefit the other party," Biden said in remarks during a trip to the US-Mexico border on Thursday.

The president emphasized that the deal was on its way to being passed when it was derailed by "partisan politics." He said compromise is a very positive step in tackling immigration — an issue that has been at the forefront of the presidential primary elections.

"We need to act. It's time for the speaker and some of my Republican friends in Congress who are blocking this bill to show a little spine," Biden said, reminding the crowd that conservative leaders also supported the deal.

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President Joe Biden held out an olive branch to his likely 2024 rival as both visited the South Texas border with Mexico on Thursday, urging former President Donald Trump to "join" him in finding an immigration solution.

Biden and Trump toured the border and delivered nearly simultaneous remarks about 300 miles apart in South Texas Thursday.

"So here's what I would say to Mr. Trump," Biden said during his remarks in Brownsville. "Set a planned policy position instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation."

A bipartisan border agreement showed promise before Trump came out against it in an apparent effort to use immigration as a wedge against Biden in his upcoming campaign to retake his office.

"Join me, or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill," Biden said, addressing Trump directly.

"We can do it together," he added.

Immigration and asylum authorities “desperately need more resources,” President Joe Biden said during remarks from the US-Mexico border, adding it was “long past time to act” on immigration reform.

Biden said, “it’s time to step up, provide them with significantly more personnel and capabilities."

He said the country also needs more immigration judges to address a backlog of asylum cases.

Former President Donald Trump repeated one of his regular exaggerations on Thursday during a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, claiming that “571 miles” of border wall were built during his presidency.

Facts First: Trump’s “571 miles” claim is false, an even greater exaggeration than the inaccurate “561 miles” and “over 500 miles” claims he has made at other points of his campaign. An official report by US Customs and Border Protection, written two days after Trump left office and subsequently obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, said the total number built under Trump was 458 miles — including both wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace previous barriers. Trump has sometimes put the figure, more correctly, at “nearly 500 miles.”

Fifty-two of the 458 miles built under Trump were “primary” wall that was built in parts of the border where no barriers previously existed. The rest was 33 miles of “secondary” wall that was built in spots where no barriers previously existed, plus 373 miles of primary and secondary wall that was built to replace previous barriers the federal government says had become “dilapidated and/or outdated.”

President Joe Biden is now making remarks during his trip to the US-Mexico border on Thursday. He is in Brownsville in South Texas.

The president’s motorcade arrived near the border earlier this afternoon. During his visit, Biden was expected to meet with Customs and Border Patrol agents, law enforcement and local leaders.

It comes as Biden considers sweeping executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US southern border if they crossed illegally. Biden has repeatedly lambasted congressional Republicans for failing to pass a bipartisan compromise spending package that included significant concessions on border policy.

Former President Donald Trump is also visiting the border on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump harshly criticized President Joe Biden's handling of the border as the likely 2024 rivals take simultaneous tours of South Texas.

"The United States is being overrun by the Biden, migrant crime. It's a new form of vicious violation to our country," Trump said from near the border in Eagle Pass. "It's migrant crime. We call it Biden migrant crime, but that's a little bit long."

At the same time, Biden was receiving a briefing from Department of Homeland Security Officials near the border in Brownsville, about 300 miles away.

Biden is expected to give remarks soon.