On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump are scheduled to make opposing excursions to several communities along the Texas-Mexico border. These travels will revolve their almost guaranteed rematch in this year's race around immigration.
Large migrant encampments have been a common sight on the other side of the border in Matamoros, Mexico, where Biden will be visiting the city of Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley. According to reports, Trump was on his way to Eagle Pass, where Texas authorities are now focusing their immigration enforcement operations. The officials have been engaged in a heated confrontation with the federal government for the last several months. NOTE: As of late Wednesday, Trump had not made the specifics of his visit to Eagle Pass public, despite news sources reporting that he would be stopping there.
Biden "will emphasize the critical need to approve the Senate bipartisan border security deal, the strongest and fairest package of measures to protect the border in decades" when he is in Brownsville, according to a statement from the White House. "He will restate his demands for Congressional Republicans to put aside their political games and provide the money required for more asylum officers, more U.S. Border Patrol personnel, fentanyl detection equipment, and other things."
Trump's team mocked Biden's visit, saying it was "racing us to the border." Biden's travel "shows exactly how huge of an issue this is for him," according to a campaign spokeswoman.
The anticipated trips coincide with the failure of a bipartisan immigration measure in the U.S. Senate to gain momentum after Trump instructed Republicans not to support it in order for him to campaign on the subject. The measure sought to restructure the asylum process to provide refugees more prompt responses and to give presidents the authority to order the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border in the event that immigration officers were overworked.
After regaining the president in November, Trump has said that enforcing immigration laws would be a top priority. Throughout his presidency, his government implemented a number of measures designed to discourage illegal border crossings and stop individuals from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
His policies included a "zero tolerance policy" to criminally charge adults who crossed the border illegally, forcing Border Patrol agents to separate children from their parents, and an emergency health order known as Title 42, which allowed immigration officials to turn away people at the border immediately without allowing them to request asylum.
Following Trump's campaign rally promises to construct a “big, beautiful wall,” the federal government also erected 55 miles of additional barriers along the border between the United States and Mexico.
Title 42 usage and the "stay in Mexico" program were among the Trump administration measures that the Biden administration gradually undid. It also established and broadened initiatives to assist some immigrants in obtaining lawful immigration status. For instance, it launched last year a program that, if they have a financial sponsor in the United States, permits 30,000 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to lawfully enter the US each month. In 2014, it also extended a program that permits youngsters from Central America to lawfully reconnect with relatives who have already arrived in the United States.
Trump and other Republican leaders have labeled Biden's immigration policies as "open-border"; governor Greg Abbott has continued where Trump left off, sending a deluge of state troopers and the National Guard to the border and using public funds to erect barriers and install concertina wire.
By enacting measures that also make it harder for immigrants to enter the country lawfully, the Biden administration has infuriated some of its allies.
Beginning in early 2023, the Biden administration mandated that those seeking asylum at a port of entry make an appointment via the CBP One smartphone application, which offers 1,400 slots per day. As per U.S. law, immigrants have the right to ask for asylum regardless of how they enter the nation. However, the administration also put into effect a regulation only last year that prevents migrants from obtaining asylum if they entered the country illegally.
Large migrant encampments have been a common sight on the other side of the border in Matamoros, Mexico, where Biden will be visiting the city of Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley. According to reports, Trump was on his way to Eagle Pass, where Texas authorities are now focusing their immigration enforcement operations. The officials have been engaged in a heated confrontation with the federal government for the last several months. NOTE: As of late Wednesday, Trump had not made the specifics of his visit to Eagle Pass public, despite news sources reporting that he would be stopping there.
Biden "will emphasize the critical need to approve the Senate bipartisan border security deal, the strongest and fairest package of measures to protect the border in decades" when he is in Brownsville, according to a statement from the White House. "He will restate his demands for Congressional Republicans to put aside their political games and provide the money required for more asylum officers, more U.S. Border Patrol personnel, fentanyl detection equipment, and other things."
Trump's team mocked Biden's visit, saying it was "racing us to the border." Biden's travel "shows exactly how huge of an issue this is for him," according to a campaign spokeswoman.
The anticipated trips coincide with the failure of a bipartisan immigration measure in the U.S. Senate to gain momentum after Trump instructed Republicans not to support it in order for him to campaign on the subject. The measure sought to restructure the asylum process to provide refugees more prompt responses and to give presidents the authority to order the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border in the event that immigration officers were overworked.
After regaining the president in November, Trump has said that enforcing immigration laws would be a top priority. Throughout his presidency, his government implemented a number of measures designed to discourage illegal border crossings and stop individuals from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
His policies included a "zero tolerance policy" to criminally charge adults who crossed the border illegally, forcing Border Patrol agents to separate children from their parents, and an emergency health order known as Title 42, which allowed immigration officials to turn away people at the border immediately without allowing them to request asylum.
Following Trump's campaign rally promises to construct a “big, beautiful wall,” the federal government also erected 55 miles of additional barriers along the border between the United States and Mexico.
Title 42 usage and the "stay in Mexico" program were among the Trump administration measures that the Biden administration gradually undid. It also established and broadened initiatives to assist some immigrants in obtaining lawful immigration status. For instance, it launched last year a program that, if they have a financial sponsor in the United States, permits 30,000 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to lawfully enter the US each month. In 2014, it also extended a program that permits youngsters from Central America to lawfully reconnect with relatives who have already arrived in the United States.
Trump and other Republican leaders have labeled Biden's immigration policies as "open-border"; governor Greg Abbott has continued where Trump left off, sending a deluge of state troopers and the National Guard to the border and using public funds to erect barriers and install concertina wire.
By enacting measures that also make it harder for immigrants to enter the country lawfully, the Biden administration has infuriated some of its allies.
Beginning in early 2023, the Biden administration mandated that those seeking asylum at a port of entry make an appointment via the CBP One smartphone application, which offers 1,400 slots per day. As per U.S. law, immigrants have the right to ask for asylum regardless of how they enter the nation. However, the administration also put into effect a regulation only last year that prevents migrants from obtaining asylum if they entered the country illegally.
