Race to the Border

The US president and his predecessor were separated by 300 miles, but the appearances were still fraught with tension as the two aimed their political attacks against each-other.

Thursday was an awkward day for US politics as former President Donald Trump and US President Joe Biden, political adversaries fighting for a spot in the Oval Office, made competing visits to the US-Mexico border.

During the visit, Biden challenged Trump to “join” him in securing the US-Mexico border, while Trump blamed the president for the lawlessness there. Migrant counters have more than doubled since Trump was president, and both sides of the political aisle have blamed Biden for the record levels of crossings.

But the US president expressed his frustration at a border bill that was torpedoed by Republicans who said it wasn’t strong enough. Biden, and other Democratic leaders, have said that both Democrats and Republicans supported the legislation until Trump told them not to, because doing so would help bolster Biden’s political gains.

“Here’s what I’d say to Mr. Trump... 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 border security bill,” he said. “We can do it together. You know, and I know it's the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen. So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done?”

Biden campaigned on ending Trump-era border policies, but may consider executive action that would close the border to new arrivals if more than an average of 5,000 migrants per day tried to cross unlawfully within a week, or if more than 8,500 tried to cross per day.

Meanwhile, Trump, who launched his first presidential campaign by accusing Mexico of sending “crime,” “drugs,” and “rapists” across the US-Mexico border, met with Republican Governor Greg Abbott at Eagle Pass, Texas.

Trump delivered a speech in which he inflated falsehoods about “migrant crime” coming into the US, despite crime rates in most US cities having fallen over the last three years, and multiple studies finding that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than other US residents.

Trump has reportedly planned an extreme expansion of his first-term immigration policies if he is reelected in 2025.

Those plans include abducting undocumented people who live in the US and detaining them in large---yet to be built---camps while they wait for expulsion. This would include those who may have lived in the US for decades. He would also enact an effort to end birthright citizenship and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), push to ban entry to people who come from Muslim-majority nations, and refuse asylum claims to those perceived as carrying infectious diseases like tuberculosis.