What was on display Thursday, when President Biden and Donald Trump flew to separate parts of the U.S. southern border, was the potency of the immigration issue heading into the November election.
Also on display was the first real split-screen moment, a chance for American voters to directly compare the two very different policies, arguments and styles of the leading presidential candidates.
Biden arrived in Brownsville, Tex., and met with federal Border Patrol agents, and local law enforcement officials. He wore a baseball hat, a buttoned suit jacket and an open collared shirt as he walked along a portion of the border and officials pointed to where people have crossed into the country.
Danger or urgency around the situation at the border was not immediately present in the Biden scene.
Trump’s visit to a different city along the U.S.-Mexico border was the opposite.
The former president, in a blue suit and long red tie, met with Border Patrol officials and members of the Texas National Guard, who showed him that part of the border. At one point Trump walked by what looked like a wall of razor wire and a parade of military vehicles.
Television cameras captured Biden speaking with officials inside the Border Patrol station in Brownsville. The room was decorated with American flags, and on one wall was a sign that read, in part: “Sworn by Oath.”
One person who briefed Biden spoke about the challenges of “handling the surge of families, of minors, of adults coming into the United States.” “Smugglers,” this person said, “are taking advantage of these vulnerable populations and individuals that are coming across.” There was also talk about the need for more technology and manpower to help detect weapons and drugs at the border. Another person told Biden about how they “tried to be very creative” to handle the overwhelming number of asylum requests that have been filed.
Trump, for his part, got a very different briefing in Eagle Pass.
Inside a large white tent, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Tex.) pointed to a photograph and told Trump, “Joe Biden entices them, if not forces them, to come right here.” One person in green military fatigues who briefed Trump inside the tent could be heard talking about the dangers posed by migrants, despite crime data showing that the threat is relatively low.
Thousands of people are “paroled into the country,” this person said, and they “go to Georgia and kill a nursing student” or “go to New York and beat up cops on the street,” or “they go to Louisiana and rape a 14-year-old girl.”
Inside the room in Brownsville, Biden focused on the people working hard at the border, and the ones in Washington who he said were making it hard to work at the border.
Biden praised the work of Border Patrol agents, as well as immigration enforcement and asylum officers. “They’re all doing incredible work under really tough conditions,” Biden said. Then he said the solution to this problem is legislation that was being stalled by House Republicans. The bipartisan border deal that Biden referenced included desperately needed funding, he argued. “It’s the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country,” Biden said. He added, “With this deal, we could hire 1,500 additional border security adds, 1,500 additional officers, and between ports of entry.”
In Eagle Pass, Trump stood outside, with the heavily protected Rio Grande at his back, and said the country was in danger from the people on the other side of all that equipment. “They’re coming from jails, and they’re coming from prisons, and they’re coming from mental institutions,” Trump said falsely. “And they’re coming from insane asylums, and they’re terrorists. They’re being let into our country.”
Trump also tried to other the people crossing into the country as different from anything inside America, saying, “We have languages coming into our country. We have nobody that even speaks those languages.”
The comments were reminiscent of the racist attack he used against Mexicans when he launched his presidential campaign in 2015. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said at the time. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Biden eventually turned his attention directly to Trump. When he did, Biden invited him to “stop playing politics” with the border issue and urged him to tell congressional lawmakers to pass the bipartisan legislation. House Republicans opposed the bill after Trump publicly called for them to do so.
“So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don’t we just get together and get it done?” Biden said. “Let’s remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. We work for the American people,” he said, ending on the kind of nonpartisan message that he ran on when he sought the presidency in 2020.
Trump, on the hand, invoked Biden’s name only to brand it as part of the problem.
“The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime,” Trump said. “It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country. It’s migrant crime,” Trump said. “We call it Biden migrant crime. But that’s a little bit long, so we’ll just leave it.”
