US ELECTIONS
President Joe Biden and his most likely Republican rival in the November elections, Donald Trump, made simultaneous visits this Thursday, February 29, to Texas, on the United States border with Mexico, at a time when they seek to increase popular support on a key issue for the electoral campaign: immigration. While, for the Trump team, the border is “a crime scene,” the Biden Administration referred to the “challenging” immigration dynamic. The visits took place on the same day that a judge temporarily blocked a tough Texas anti-immigrant law.
The president of the United States and pre-candidate of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, and the most likely to win the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, visited towns in Texas, on the border with Mexico, this Thursday, February 29.
During their tour, both pointed to border security and immigration as key issues for the country, at a time when the irregular flow of people to that country continues to increase.
Trump, 77, landed in Eagle Pass and minutes later the incumbent Democrat Biden, 81, arrived in Brownsville, about 300 miles to the east.
The visits, less than eight months before Americans go to the polls, highlight how much is at stake on the border issue, primarily for Biden.
The visits occur when this Thursday a judge temporarily blocked a Texas law promoted by Abbottwhich since March allowed the detention, imprisonment or expulsion of migrants who have crossed the border through unauthorized steps and who remain in the state.
Abbott will appeal this decision, which is part of a judicial dispute between the federal and state governments over border control.
On his second border trip since taking office in 2021, Biden met with border patrol and other agents, before delivering a speech urging Republicans to stop blocking his immigration reforms.
Republicans have rejected Biden's proposed border legislation “simply because the former president (Trump) told him to,” White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters on Air Force One.
Biden was accompanied by his immigration chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, who was accused by Republicans in the House of Representatives two weeks ago, ensuring that he is not doing his job.
Read alsoTrump and Biden at the border: a duel with migration as the protagonist in the race for the White House
Trump: a “very dangerous” border
More than 2.4 million migrants crossed the southern border of the United States in 2023 alonelargely from Central America and Venezuela as they flee poverty, violence and the disasters of climate change.
For Trump, his hardline anti-immigration stance has been central to his political identity for years, and he has promised the largest deportation program ever undertaken in the United States if he returns to the White House.
“Good weather, beautiful day, but a very dangerous border, we are going to take care of it,” the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination told reporters upon landing in Eagle Pass.
Trump campaign described border as a 'crime scene' and said the former president would “outline his plan to put America first and secure the border immediately after taking office.”
For Trump, immigrants are “killing our people, they are killing our country,” in increasingly far-right rhetoric that led him to say last year that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the United States.
“He is a terrible president. Probably the most incompetent we have ever had. He is allowing thousands of people to enter from China, Iran, Yemen, Congo, Syria and many other nations. The United States is being invaded by Biden's migrant crime” Trump said.
The rival visits also underscored the candidates' radically different views on the situation on the southern border.
Biden: a “challenging” migration
Biden's trip to Brownsville seeks to show how his border measures are working, in an area where so-called migrant “encounters” dropped by nearly a quarter in January.
Mayorkas said Biden would listen to border officials about the “very few resources they have” and how legislation blocked by Republicans would give them the resources they need.
He also advocated for Biden to avoid an area where the crisis was worst, saying Brownsville showed how cooperation between the United States and Mexico had helped reduce border crossings.
“Brownsville offers a very good view of how dynamic and challenging the immigration phenomenon is,” Mayorkas told reporters.
Republicans blame Biden for migrant flow, while White House says Trump's party is sabotaging deliberately a bipartisan attempt to find a solution.
But polls show the issue is a weakness for Biden's bid for a second term, and a poll by US broadcaster NBC in February showed Trump leading Biden by 30 points on the issue of immigration.
Biden insisted earlier this week that he had not deliberately planned the schedule clash with Trump, the man he defeated in the 2020 election, and said he did not know his “good friend” would also go.
With AFP
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