Biden challenges Trump to ‘join me’ as he urges Congress to pass border bill in rival Texas campaign stops

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A pair of cities alongside the US-Mexico border became stages for two presidential candidates on Thursday as President Joe Biden slammed his predecessor and opponent for getting in the best way of wanted immigration reform and border safety laws.

In Brownsville, Texas — a border city alongside the Rio Grande, river — Mr Biden acquired a briefing from prime Customs and Border Patrol personnel, together with CBP Deputy Commissioner Peter Flores, Border Patrol chief Jason Owens, and Gloria Chavez, a prime CBP officer who serves as the Brownsville sector chief.

Mr Biden was informed by the top of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division that DHS requires “more personnel” and “more resources,” together with further detention beds, expertise for monitoring asylum seekers whereas they await hearings, as effectively as extra cooperation from cities and states by having them alert ICE once they arrest individuals who aren’t legally current in the US.

Mr Biden was additionally informed about non-intrusive inspection expertise that could possibly be bought with the held-up supplemental laws to forestall illicit fentanyl from being trafficked into the US.

He replied: “We can’t afford not to do this”.

In remarks to DHS personnel, Mr Biden praised their border enforcement efforts, telling them: “No one works harder for a safe and secure border than all of you”.

The president mentioned it was “long past time” for motion on the border safety deal held up by Republicans, which was painstakingly negotiated by a gaggle of bipartisan senators together with Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, Arizona unbiased Kyrsten Sinema, and Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy.

He described it as “the toughest set of border reforms we’ve ever seen in this country”.

“It’s pretty basic. With this deal, we could hire 1500 additional border security officers in between ports of entry,” he mentioned, including that staffing at CBP has been “flat” for years, even whereas border brokers labored massive quantities of extra time and made “major sacrifices”.

Mr Biden mentioned it was “long past time” for a pay improve when he signed laws in December to give border brokers a increase, however mentioned extra was essential.

“It’s time to step up,” he mentioned. “The bipartisan border security deal is a win for the American people. That’s a win for the people of Texas and it’s fair for those who legitimately have a right to come here to begin with. It’s a win for the people are brown. So I believe that’s why the Border Patrol Unit endorsed it. I believe that’s why the national Chamber of Commerce endorsed it.”

Biden lays into Trump for urging Republicans to oppose compromise border bill

The president recalled how Mr Trump’s command to Republican senators and the GOP-controlled House leaders pushed them to shelve the bill so the ex-president may maintain demagoguing about immigration on the campaign path, moderately than really enact laws that would alleviate issues on the border.

“This bill was in the United States Senate, it was on its way to being passed. Then it was derailed by rank partisan politics,” he mentioned. “The US Senate needs to reconsider this bill. And those senators who oppose it, need to set politics aside and pass it on merits, not on whether it’s going to benefit one party or benefit the other party. It’s about whether it benefits the American people”.

He additionally mentioned House Speaker Mike Johnson, a detailed ally of Mr Trump, wants to enable an up-or-down vote on the border bundle, and famous that it had bipartisan support till Mr Trump ordered Republicans to oppose it.

“The majority of Democrats and Republicans in both houses supported this legislation until someone came along and said ‘don’t do that, don’t benefit the incumbent,’” he mentioned, including that pushing to kill a bill for such partisan causes was “a hell of a way to do business in America for such a serious problem”.

“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,” he mentioned earlier than lastly acknowledging his predecessor’s competing go to to the Lone Star State in Eagle Pass, Texas.

“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 borer security bill,” he mentioned. “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? “

At the same time Mr Biden was touring Brownsville and calling for more resources, the former president, who launched his first presidential campaign by accusing Mexico of sending “crime,” “drugs,” and “rapists” throughout the southern border and ended his time period by fomenting an tried coup after the misplaced the 2020 election, was assembly with federal and state personnel allied together with his aim of considerably decreasing nonwhite immigration and blocking anybody from looking for asylum in the US.

Ex-president’s go to tries to replicate presidential pomp with assist from partisan allies

In an ersatz approximation of a presidential go to, Mr Trump travelled to Eagle Pass, Texas aboard his bespoke and self-branded 757, and was met by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican ally who has devoted vital state sources to undermining the federal authorities’s efforts to reform immigration legal guidelines every time Democrats have managed the White House.

Mr Trump and Mr Abbott toured websites the place he has used Texas National Guard personnel to block federal brokers from finishing up border enforcement duties, usually with the usage of razor wire and armed troopers working to maintain border brokers from rescuing migrants in misery.

They had been accompanied by Brandon Judd, the Trump-aligned head of the US Border Patrol Union. Mr Judd, who’s an lively Border Patrol officer, delivered a blistering tirade towards Mr Biden and praised Mr Abbott’s efforts to undermine the Biden administration’s immigration insurance policies.

“What President Trump has seen right here is he’s seen how his policies have worked, but he’s also seen how he can expand upon those policies once he takes goes back into the White House. He has seen how Governor Abbott has been able to use his policies to secure this specific area at the epicenter of the last two years of the illegal border crisis that we have had to endure,” mentioned Mr Judd, who claimed that Border Patrol officers are “upset that we cannot get the proper policy that is necessary to protect human life. to protect American citizens. to protect the people that are crossing the border illegally”.

“We can’t do that because President Biden’s policies continue to invite people across,” mentioned Mr Judd, who’s nominally a federal civil servant charged with serving in a nonpartisan trend regardless of which celebration controls the White House.

But the duelling visits, one official and one ersatz, supplied a window into the funhouse mirror of Mr Trump’s efforts to current himself as a shadow president with assistance from state and federal officers who’ve rejected Mr Biden’s legitimacy and the legitimacy of the federal authorities with out consequence.

Trump remarks gentle on details, heavy on racial innuendo

Mr Trump, who additionally met with Texas nationwide guard troopers underneath Mr Abbott’s command, delivered a weird, falsehood-filled rant flanked by the Texas governor and Mr Judd, in which he accused Mr Biden of intentionally permitting an “invasion”.

“This is a Biden invasion over the past three years … it’s allowing 1000s and 1000s of people come in from China, Iran, Yemen, the Congo,” and plenty of different nations,” he mentioned, including that the US was being “overrun by the migrant crime” despite the fact that crime charges in most US cities have fallen during the last three years.

“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,” he continued, calling the scenario “horrible” and accusing leaders in different nations of intentionally sending asylum seekers to the US, once more specifying the Congo as a supply of violent migrants.

“I know many of the leaders of these other countries that are doing it and it’s not just South America, it’s all over the world, the Congo, a very big population coming in from jails from the Congo. You look at the jails. Now you take a look at the jails throughout the region, but more importantly, throughout the world. They’re emptying out because they’re dumping them into the United States,” he mentioned.

In a press release, Biden campaign supervisor Julie Chavez Rodriguez reacted to Mr Trump’s journey and speech attacking Mr Biden, calling him “weak on border security” and “weak on crime”.

“That’s why he directed MAGA Republicans to kill the toughest and fairest reforms to secure the border in decades and tried to defund the police every year he was in office,” she mentioned.

“The truth is, Donald Trump doesn’t want to secure the border. He prefers chaos and cruelty because he’s betting it helps him politically. Last time he was in office, kids were held in cages, families were ripped apart, and violent crime skyrocketed. It’s a bad bet – one that he will pay for at the ballot box this November.”