Biden and Trump border visits highlight immigration as a major election issue

Biden and Trump border visits highlight immigration as a major election issue
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — President Joe Biden and his likely Republican challenger Donald Trump both headed to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday in a sign of how central immigration has become to the 2024 election and how much each man wants to use it to his advantage.

Each has chosen an optimal location from which to underscore his points.

Biden, who wants to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump’s orders, headed to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but they have dropped sharply in recent months.

“Brownsville, Texas, is a very good glimpse of how dynamic and challenging that migration phenomenon is,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said from Air Force One.

Trump, for his part, wants to continue his attacks on Biden and keep up his dialed-up rhetoric after saying migrants were poisoning the blood of Americans. He journeyed to Eagle Pass, roughly 325 miles northwest of Brownsville, in the corridor that’s currently seeing the largest number of crossings. Trump was to speak from a state park that has become a Republican symbol of defiance against the federal government’s immigration enforcement practices.

In other words, the split screen moment couldn’t possibly be more split, and each candidate is asking voters to side with his approach to immigration.