President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress, once again, to pass a stalled bipartisan border security deal he says is needed to address the influx of illegal migration.
Biden made his remarks at the Brownsville Border Patrol Station in Olmitos, Texas, after meeting with U.S. Border Patrol agents and local officials.
“It’s time to step up,” Biden said, arguing the country needs more Border Patrol agents, more technology to detect the threats on the Southern border and more immigration judges.
Under the Senate deal, more than 1,500 U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel and 100 immigration judges would be hired, and 10,000 beds would be added to ICE detention facilities.
The bill would also allocate money to install 100 machines that help detect fentanyl.
But Biden has been criticized because the deal also increases the standard to claim asylum. Currently, migrants seeking asylum have to prove there is a “significant possibility” that they could be prosecuted if returned to their countries. However, under the Senate proposal, migrants would have to establish a “reasonable possibility,” a higher standard.
Thursday marked Biden’s second visit to the Southern border since he was elected in 2020.
And although he met with law enforcement agents, neither Biden nor Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with immigrant-rights groups.
Michelle Serrano, the co-director of Voces Unidas RGV, said during a rally in Brownsville before the president's arrival, that Biden “has historically ignored” the Rio Grande Valley, but is coming now because he needs the vote of border communities.
“Biden’s visit says that we matter but only as a backdrop to dismantling asylum,” Serrano said. “Biden cares about what happens here, but only when it involves land disruption for steel walls.”
But, in his speech, Biden said it was a bipartisan agreement and that not everybody was going to get what they wanted.
He also called on his rival — former President Donald Trump — to stop opposing the measure.
Earlier this month, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the measure was “worse than we expected,” after facing pressure from Trump.
“Instead of playing politics with you, why don’t we just get together and get it done?” Biden said, referring to Trump.
Dueling visits
While Biden was in Brownsville, Trump was also in Texas — about 320 miles upriver in Eagle Pass.
The president’s predecessor slammed Biden’s policies and invoked the same controversial rhetoric about migrants he used when he launched his campaign for president in 2015.
“The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime,” he said. “It's a new form of a vicious violation to our country.”
Trump repeatedly mentioned the recent death of Georgia college student Laken Riley, the 22-year-old woman authorities said was allegedly killed at random by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022 and was released by federal officials as his asylum claim was pending.
“You saw what happened the other day in Georgia. And the parents are devastated, incredible people,” he said. “But this is a Joe Biden invasion.”
Trump also praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the efforts his office has made to fortify the border amid what Republicans call federal inaction. Eagle Pass has been the epicenter of Abbott’s battle with the federal government over border security as Texas’ Operation Lone Star has tested the limits on what individual states can do to secure the border on their own.
“Texas has done an amazing job and in a pretty short period of time, they're going to have it all covered,” Trump said. “They have just been incredible with the operation that they showed me is nothing less than incredible.”
Trump has said he wants to implement the mass deportations of unauthorized migrants.
Trump and Biden are preparing to face off in the November election.
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