President Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, made separate trips to the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday to advocate their own versions of who's to blame for the problems there. While each placed responsibility on the other, Biden added a political dare for his potential election opponent, the New York Times reports—challenging him to support the border legislation the former president had instructed congressional Republicans to block. Here's a look at their arguments:
- Biden: "Join me, or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill," the president said in Brownsville as he addressed Trump, per CNN. "We can do it together." US border agencies "desperately need for resources," Biden said. "It's time for us to move on this." The president approached what has been a political liability for him by casting himself throughout as focused on solutions, per the Times. Biden told Brownsville officials that if Republicans and Democrats can work together on issues like infrastructure, he can't understand why they can't collaborate to solve the problems at the border.
- Trump: "This is a Joe Biden invasion," Trump said in Eagle Pass, per the Wall Street Journal. "Now the United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime." He said he spoke Wednesday with the parents of Laken Riley; the suspect in her slaying is an undocumented immigrant. "These are the people that are coming into our country," Trump said, repeating past rhetoric about migrants being killers and insane, though there's not much evidence tying immigration levels to crime, per CNN. "Nice weather. Beautiful day. But a very dangerous border," Trump told reporters Thursday, per NBC News. "We're going to take care of it."
The
Journal points out that neither Biden nor Trump met with any migrants while in Texas. (More
US-Mexico border stories.)
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