US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made separate visits to the US-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday, February 29.
Speaking with border patrol agents, and law enforcement officials at Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border, Biden chided Republicans for blocking a Senate bill that would have provided billions of dollars in additional funding for border security.
“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 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.”
Meanwhile, Trump blamed Biden for illegal crossings.
“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 as 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.
