Border security will be Biden's focus during his visit to Texas. Here's what we know.
President Joe Biden will visit the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday to address border security and call out Republicans for derailing a border bill this month amid a yearslong surge in unlawful crossings.
In his second visit to Texas' southern border during his presidency, Biden will stop in Brownsville to speak with federal immigration agents and local government and law enforcement officials as well as pitch the need for Congress to act swiftly in passing border security legislation.
Biden's visit Thursday will coincide with a stop the same day in Eagle Pass, about 300 miles away, by former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner for the presidency. Border security, which remains an election liability for Biden, has risen as a top issue in the likely rematch in November between the president and Trump.
More: Biden to visit Texas-Mexico border Thursday. Will he change the vexing issue's narrative?
Biden calls for 'urgent' action on Texas-Mexico border
In announcing the trip Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will discuss the "urgent need" to pass a border security package.
"He will reiterate his calls for congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more," Jean-Pierre said.
An $118 billion proposal introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier this month to revamp the country's immigration system, creating some of the most aggressive border restrictions in years, and to provide foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel was blocked by Senate Republicans, at Trump's urging. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had also said the bill would not advance from his chamber.
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Biden's border spat with Gov. Greg Abbott
Biden's previous visit to the southern border came in January 2023, when he stopped in El Paso en route to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about stemming migration.
During the visit, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott handed Biden a letter placing the blame squarely on the president for increases in migrant crossings and lagging border infrastructure.
"Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings," Abbott wrote at the time. "Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance."
Since that brief meeting between the two leaders, the Legislature has directed more than $11 billion to Operation Lone Star, Abbott's border security initiative that includes constructing additional miles of unconnected border wall, installing a buoy barrier on the Rio Grande and razor wire along its shores and building a permanent military "base camp" for 1,800 Texas National Guard troops with the capacity to expand to accommodate 2,300 troops.
Outside of the upcoming border trip to Texas, Biden visited Dallas last month to attend the funeral of U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a trailblazing Black woman who served in both the Texas Senate and the U.S. House. Biden called Johnson an "icon."
USA Today reporter Joey Garrison and Statesman reporter John Moritz contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: President Biden to visit the Texas border today. Here’s what we know.