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

Former President Donald Trump walks at Shelby Park during a visit to the US-Mexico border on Thursday in Eagle Pass, Texas.

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.

President Joe Biden, second from the right, looks over the southern border on Thursday in Brownsville, Texas.

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

Here’s what else happened:

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.

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 visits the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, as seen from Piedras Negras, Mexico, on February 29.

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 speaks during his visit to the US-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on February 29.

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 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.

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.

President Joe Biden speaks following a visit to the US-Mexico border on Thursday in Texas.

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 talks with the US Border Patrol and local officials, as he looks over the southern border on Thursday.

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 talks near the bank of the Rio Grande River at Shelby Park during a visit to the US-Mexico border on Thursday, February 29, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

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.

Former President Donald Trump speaks in Eagle Pass, Texas, on February 29.

Donald Trump is delivering remarks during his visit to the US-Mexico border. The former president is in Eagle Pass, Texas, a city where the state has feuded with federal authorities over how to tackle the migrant crisis.

Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, has made President Joe Biden’s handling of illegal immigration a centerpiece of his reelection effort. Trump has vowed to conduct the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he wins the White House in November.

Biden is also making a separate visit to the US-Mexico border today, and is set to deliver remarks in Brownsville this afternoon.

Though they were about 300 miles apart, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had similar tours of the US-Mexico border on Thursday in Texas, walking along the border while receiving briefings from public officials about immigration.

Former President Donald Trump talks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a visit to the US-Mexico border on Thursday in Eagle Pass, Texas.

In Eagle Pass, Trump toured the border and Texas National Guard facilities with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, where the former president was shown pictures of migrants crossing near the area where he was standing.

President Joe Biden receives a briefing at the US-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on February 29. 

Near Brownsville, Biden engaged with US Customs and Border Protection agents and viewed the border. Both Biden and Trump, likely rivals in the general election, are expected to give remarks as immigration remains a top issue for voters ahead of November

The White House is welcoming the decision by a federal judge in Texas 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. Plaintiffs include the federal government and El Paso County, which said enforcing the law would strain its jail system with thousands of new arrests.

President Joe Biden arrives at the southern border city of Brownsville, Texas, on February 29.

President Joe Biden has arrived at the border in South Texas.

The president’s motorcade arrived near the US-Mexico border at 2:02 p.m. local time. The president will view the border and engage with Customs and Border Patrol agents during this tour. 

During ride from the airport in Brownsville to the border, the motorcade drove along the border fence and observed a small crowd of about 20 waving Trump flags.

He is expected to deliver remarks this afternoon.

President Joe Biden speaks to the press before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 29. 

President Joe Biden’s visit to the US-Mexico border to hammer Republicans over the failed Senate border bill, which included tough border security measures, marks a dramatic shift for a White House that generally distanced itself from the issue. 

Since Biden took office, officials have grappled with record migration across the Western Hemisphere fueled by the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. Images of thousands of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border dogged the administration as it wrestled with how to manage multiple different nationalities — a significant change from previous years that proved challenging. 

Sources tell CNN that discussions about the border at the White House were often tense as the issue increasingly became a political liability for Biden. The last time Biden visited the US southern border was in January 2023, when he went to El Paso, Texas. 

But now, the White House is trying to take advantage of Republicans backing away from the Senate border bill — and seizing on border security to take swipes at the GOP. In an example of that, last week, at an annual meeting of governors at the White House, Biden cited the deal, calling it the “strongest border deal the country has ever seen.”  Officials also placed a fact sheet with details of the compromise at each table where the governors were seated. 

What was in the compromise: The deal — worked on by Senate negotiators and administration officials for months — 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.  

Biden is also considering sweeping executive action that would restrict the ability of migrants to seek asylum in the US if they crossed the border illegally. 

Former President Donald touched down at Del Rio International Airport and briefly addressed cameras on the tarmac. 

Trump is expected to deliver a speech later this afternoon on border security and illegal immigration near the US-Mexico border. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as first lady Jill Biden speaks to the National Governors Association during an event in the East Room of the White House on Friday, February 23, in Washington, DC.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas downplayed the brewing political split screen Thursday as President Joe Biden visits the US-Mexico border roughly 300 miles away from a border visit by former President Donald Trump, stating that the current president is making the trip to draw attention to the need for congressional action. 

He added, “The fact of the matter is that the only enduring solution is legislation. Congress needs to act.” 

Mayorkas noted that Biden will be hearing firsthand from people “who work tirelessly and bravely to secure the border” about the impact that the stalled bipartisan border bill could have. The secretary also laid out the significance of the choice of Brownsville, one of a number of critical processing points along the border, for the presidential visit. 

“Brownsville, Texas, provides a very good glimpse of how dynamic and challenging that migration phenomenon is,” Mayorkas said, noting that last spring, approximately 30% of all encounters across the southern border took place in the Rio Grande Valley sector, which includes Brownsville. 

Those numbers have gone down, he said, due to enhancing law enforcement and diplomatic work with allies in the region. 

“Brownsville demonstrates the impact of that partnership when everyone’s working together to address a shared challenge,” he said. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters today that the White House will not be announcing any new executive actions at the border during President Joe Biden’s trip. 

CNN has previously reported that the White House is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border if they crossed illegally – a maneuver reminiscent of controversial action from the Donald Trump era and it is set to invite fierce backlash from immigration advocates and progressives.

Biden is expected to visit Brownsville, Texas, today in his first visit to the border in 13 months. 

In a recent Pew Research Center report about the situation at the US-Mexico border, 57% of Americans say the large number of migrants seeking to enter the country leads to more crime. In other words, most people in the US are now tying crime to recent increases in immigration.

But, many researchers crunching the numbers have found there’s no connection between immigration and crime. Some have even found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the US.

Crime wasn’t the focus of Pew’s recent survey, which found Americans overwhelmingly fault the government for how it’s handled the situation at the border and gave respondents a chance to weigh in on possible policy solutions.

Its release earlier this month came on the heels of several high-profile criminal cases in New York City allegedly involving recent migrants, including an assault of police officers in Times Square and a string of cell phone robberies that prompted the police commissioner to declare in a recent news conference that “a wave of migrant crime” had “ washed over” the city.

However, some criminologists who have analyzed hundreds of studies about immigration and crime said that perception might not the reality.

Read more about what Kubrin and other experts say they have learned about immigration and crime.

President Joe Biden stands alongside Utah Governor Governor Spencer Cox, left, during a black-tie dinner following the National Governors Association meetings in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 24.

The National Governors Association holds a gathering of governors at the White House annually to discuss matters affecting their states and other kitchen-table issues. For years, immigration has been on the backburner.But that was not the case this year.

Immigration was the primary focus of their discussions this weekend, several governors told CNN. “This is the No. 1 issue on Americans’ minds right now,” Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said. North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN that “everybody realizes that this is a significant problem right now and a challenge.”

Governors nationwide, regardless of their proximity to the US southern border, have been grappling with migrant arrivals, in part as a result of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing migrants to Democratic-led cities unannounced. President Joe Biden acknowledged their challenges in his remarks before governors onFriday.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Friday that Biden told governors that he is working with lawyers to understand what executive action he could take on immigration, but that the president appeared “frustrated” that he “was not getting answers from attorneys that felt he could take the kind of actions that he wanted to.”

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures to supporters during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, in Columbia, South Carolina.

One key reason for Donald Trump’s dominance in the GOP presidential race may be hiding in plain sight: Even compared to 2016, the Republican electorate has moved sharply to the right on immigration. That shift on one of Trump’s signature issues has tightened his grip on the party.

Every GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential race offered a hardline agenda on immigration. (Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival for the nomination, has also pledged large-scale deportations of migrants allowed in the country under Biden.) But the increased focus and rightward tilt of Republican voters on the issue is clearly boosting Trump.

“I hear time and time again in focus groups, among Republicans, among independents, even with Biden voters, they will tell you that Donald Trump had the immigration problem handled,” said Jim McLaughlin, a pollster for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Now Trump’s strength among the Republicans most concerned about immigration is paying increasing dividends because of a powerful compounding effect: compared to 2016, he is winning a bigger share of the growing portion of GOP voters who support deportation.

Read more about how the immigration issue is boosting Trump’s success.